The Home Office has reported more than 17,000 arrests of migrants working illegally in the UK since July 2024, a 122% increase on the previous two years. The figures accompany record numbers of immigration raids and arrests in the first six months of 2026 (BBC News).

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the enforcement drive takes the UK to its highest level in British history. Immigration raids in the first half of 2026 rose to 7,270, a 31% increase on the same period the previous year. Those raids led to 4,756 arrests, up 20% on the comparable period in 2025.

The arrests are concentrated in three regions. London recorded 1,256 illegal-working arrests, up 32% on the same period in 2025. The West Midlands saw 701, a 22% rise, while South West England accounted for 693, a 44% increase. Together, those three regions represent the highest illegal-working arrest rates in the country.

Employers in the beauty, retail and hospitality sectors have been hit with £74m worth of civil penalties so far in 2026. From 1 October, employers caught hiring illegal workers in the gig economy, including delivery riders, could face fines of up to £60,000 per illegal worker or five years in prison.

The enforcement intensification predates the current government. The number of people arrested during immigration raids on businesses was increasing before Labour took office in July 2024. Between 5 July 2024 and 31 January 2025, illegal working visits and arrests both rose by approximately 38% compared to the same period 12 months earlier (gov.uk).

Through the full calendar year of 2025, the Home Office carried out 12,791 illegal working visits resulting in 8,971 arrests, the most successful calendar year on record for illegal working enforcement (gov.uk). Government figures covering 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2025 record more than 12,322 arrests during illegal working visits, an 83% increase on the previous period. A further 2,113 people were detained following illegal working visits between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025, a 75% rise.

Returns — the process of sending people back to their home countries — have also climbed. Since July 2024 there has been a 50% rise in individuals being returned, totalling 2,357. Immigration Enforcement conducted 187 raids in Northern Ireland, leading to 234 arrests (gov.uk).

The broader context here matters politically. Labour's enforcement figures are being measured against a baseline that was already rising before the party entered government, which complicates straightforward claims of attribution. The 122% headline figure covers activity from July 2024 onward, but the pre-existing upward trend in business-raid arrests suggests structural factors — broader Home Office resourcing decisions and intelligence-led targeting — were already in play. Ministers will need to decide how much of the surge they attribute to inherited policy versus new direction.

The regional concentration also warrants attention. London, the West Midlands and the South West are not the three most populous regions of England, yet they account for the highest arrest rates. That distribution points to enforcement priorities that may reflect sectoral targeting, since beauty, retail and hospitality cluster differently across the country, rather than population alone. The South West's 44% increase, in particular, suggests enforcement is expanding beyond the metropolitan core where illegal working has traditionally been policed most heavily.

The gig-economy provisions taking effect from 1 October extend employer liability into a part of the labour market where worker status and documentation are frequently unclear. Delivery riders and similar roles often involve complex contracting chains, and civil penalties of up to £60,000 per worker, combined with the threat of imprisonment, raise questions about how liability will be apportioned between platforms, subcontractors and end employers.

For context, the UK figures arrive amid intensifying enforcement on the other side of the Atlantic. The daily average of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests rose to 1,300 in December 2025, according to agency figures obtained by the Deportation Data Project (Reuters). More than 12,000 people were arrested by US immigration authorities following tips from the Office of Refugee Resettlement, as of 23 July 2026 (Reuters).

The comparison is imperfect, as the US and UK enforcement regimes operate under different legal frameworks and target different populations. Both governments, though, are operating at or near record enforcement levels, and both are facing questions about the balance between enforcement scale and labour-market consequences.