Trump administration orders US embassy to collect data on migrant crime in Australia

3 months ago 5

Washington: The Trump administration will collect data on crimes and human rights abuses committed by migrants to Australia as part of its global drive to combat mass migration, which it describes as “an existential threat to Western civilisation”.

The intervention into domestic affairs goes beyond illegal immigration and seeks to caution Canberra that a significant intake of migrants, “particularly of a culture that’s radically different from Australia’s”, can lead to political and economic instability.

Anti-immigration protesters marched in Sydney in August.

A senior State Department official said the administration had instructed diplomats at its embassy in Canberra to “begin collecting data and reporting on migrant-related crimes and human rights abuses facilitated by people of a migration background”.

Similar cables were sent last week to US embassies in Europe, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. The governments of these countries were not consulted beforehand, but the US embassies have been instructed to contact them and offer to “help”.

The senior State Department official, who spoke on condition of not being named, said the US government was concerned a large influx of migrants could strain markets, naming Australia’s housing crisis as an example.

“Beyond that, we want to caution the Australians,” he told this masthead. “We love the Australian people … We just want to warn our friends that if you import a rapid number of individuals of any background, particularly of a culture that’s radically different from Australia’s, without any sort of mechanism for diffusing the impact ... that can lead to political unrest, that can lead to economic instability.”

US President Donald Trump addressing the United Nations, where he warned the world - particularly Europe - that their countries were “going to hell”.

The official said that while illegal immigration was “the elephant in the room”, the Trump administration was concerned about mass migration more broadly.

“You have to have some common sense about that,” he told this masthead. “You also have to understand the limitations ... and the security concerns that come with mass migration, and what happens when you import a substantial number of people into a very tight particular area.”

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment overnight.

Australia admits 185,000 permanent migrants a year, mostly skilled workers. Net overseas migration, which includes temporary workers, international students and visitors, is falling rapidly from a post-COVID high of 538,000 in 2022-23. It has now dropped to about 316,000, lower than forecasted.

The State Department said it had concerns about the impact of migration on Australia’s housing market.

But Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has pledged to unveil a policy that would further cut the intake, amid a hot-button debate over immigration and population.

In a separate cable, the State Department also instructed embassies to begin collating its next annual human rights report, traditionally one of the most comprehensive studies of human rights abuses around the world.

The Trump administration is changing the focus of the report to scrutinise countries’ enforcement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies, as well as government funding for abortion services and gender transition surgery for children.

The senior State Department official, on a briefing call to news media, said the administration was not afraid to call out its allies “just as much as we’re willing to call out our enemies”.

US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference in February, where he scolded Europe over “out of control migration”.

It was also determined to address human rights concerns that have been ignored by the global human rights community “because they were politically incorrect, or they weren’t convenient to the prevailing narratives”.

The official said the fact that the project was being overseen by the department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour underscored how seriously the administration was taking the issue.

The latest intervention continues a global project articulated by Vice President JD Vance when he spoke at the Munich Security Conference in February, warning European leaders their voters were rebelling against “out-of-control migration”, and that politicians ignored the will of the people at their peril.

President Donald Trump dramatically pressed the case when he told the United Nations in September that “the globalist migration agenda”, along with environmental and economic policies to combat climate change, were destroying Western societies. “Your countries are going to hell,” he said.

The senior policy adviser at the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, Samuel Samson, graduated from university in 2021. In May, he posted an essay on the department’s Substack shaming Europe for its “democratic backsliding”, facilitation of mass migration and descriptions of certain right-wing political parties as extremists.

“The global liberal project is not enabling the flourishing of democracy,” he wrote. “Rather, it is trampling democracy, and Western heritage along with it, in the name of a decadent governing class afraid of its own people … Achieving peace in Europe and around the world requires not a rejection of our shared cultural heritage, but a renewal of it.”