Berlin’s immigration authorities are moving to deport four young foreign residents on allegations related to participation in protests against Israel’s war on Gaza, an unprecedented move that raises serious concerns over civil liberties in Germany.
The deportation orders, issued under German migration law, were made amid political pressure and over internal objections from the head of the state of Berlin’s immigration agency.
The internal strife arose because three of those targeted for deportation are citizens of European Union member states who normally enjoy freedom of movement between E.U. countries. None of the four has been convicted of any crimes.
“What we’re seeing here is straight out of the far right’s playbook,” said Alexander Gorski, a lawyer representing two of the protesters. “You can see it in the U.S. and Germany, too: Political dissent is silenced by targeting the migration status of protesters.”
Berlin is run by right-wing conservatives, not liberals. The federal government lacks authority for states deciding whom to deport.
The map said Berlin was “left” in the last German elections. Is this not representative?
Those are the results from the 2024 European Parliament Election.
Here are the results of the more relevant 2023 State Parliament Election:
The state government is right-wing conservatives with centrist-at-best “social” democrats. Both are very supportive of police cracking down on people who wouldn’t have voted for them anyways.
Berlin currently has a black-red government. I have no idea what your map there is showing. State elections wouldn’t show a federal map and the last federal elections don’t match, compare e.g. SH’s districts (northernmost state).
Berlin is kinda notorious for being a police state, and of the “IDGAF” nature, not “stickler for law” one.