Across the United Kingdom and the United States, heated debates and rising tensions over asylum seekers and immigration enforcement have reached a boiling point in recent days. From Oswego, New York, to Exeter and Falkirk in the UK, community members, politicians, and activists are grappling with the complex realities of migration, the rights of refugees, and the rhetoric swirling around these issues.
On the evening of September 9, 2025, the city of Oswego, New York, became the latest flashpoint in America’s long-running struggle over immigration enforcement. Protesters filled the Common Council meeting, demanding that Mayor Robert Corradino and council members halt cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Upstate New York. The immediate catalyst: an ICE raid at Nutrition Bar Confectioners in nearby Cato, where 57 individuals were detained. According to Oswego County Today, passionate residents voiced their anger, with one speaker declaring, “These are not criminals; these are our neighbors. They pay taxes and contribute to our economy. Instead of safety, they are met with raids and deportation.”
The tension didn’t stop at City Hall. Protesters seeking information about the fate of the detainees marched to the Oswego Border Patrol station, where they were reportedly met with less lethal weapons—a move that demonstrators say was meant to intimidate them. The city’s status as a historic haven for refugees was called into question, with SUNY Oswego’s Kyle Dzintars asking, “Do we get to claim we are a safe place for refugees still?”
Chance Kennedy, who works with refugees and asylum seekers at Upstate Medical Center, highlighted the real-life consequences of these enforcement actions. Since January 20, 2025, Kennedy said, foreign patients have been skipping medical appointments, too afraid of encountering ICE. The climate of fear, she explained, is not just theoretical—it’s impacting the health and well-being of Oswego’s most vulnerable residents.
In the face of mounting public pressure, Mayor Corradino released a heartfelt statement on September 8, 2025, via the City of Oswego’s Facebook page. Drawing on his own family’s immigrant story, Corradino wrote, “No family living here legally should be subjected to fear, confusion, or the trauma of sudden detainment. We must do better.” He clarified that neither the city nor its police department had any involvement or prior knowledge of the Cato raid, emphasizing, “Our only connection is the presence of a Border Patrol facility on the east side of our city.” Corradino called on federal representatives to enact meaningful immigration reform, urging that enforcement be carried out “with transparency, fairness, and dignity.”
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, similar debates are playing out—sometimes with disturbing consequences. In Falkirk, Scotland, police are investigating after a brick was thrown through a window of the Cladhan Hotel, which houses asylum seekers. The incident, which took place in the early hours of September 9, 2025, left no one injured but sent shockwaves through the community. As The Scotsman reported, the act followed a protest two days earlier, organized by a group called Save Our Future & Our Kids Futures, and opposed by local anti-racist groups.
Falkirk for All, a community group dedicated to opposing racism, condemned the attack as “an attempt to intimidate our neighbours in the asylum system.” The group linked the incident to “rising anti-immigration rhetoric” and warned, “Everyone has the right to feel safe in our community, and actions like this bring our town into disrepute.” Stand up to Racism Scotland added that far-right protests are “driving violence towards refugees and those that stand up to oppose the far-right thuggery,” pointing to previous demonstrations featuring Nazi salutes and a banner reading, ‘Kill ‘em all!’
Further south in Exeter, the leader of Devon County Council, Julian Brazil, has been urging an end to protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers. According to the BBC, both protesters and counter-protesters have gathered in recent weeks at the site, which is home to some of “the most vulnerable people in the world,” including children who have fled war, famine, and persecution. Brazil called for the community to show “values of tolerance and compassion,” warning, “To blame all our country's and our county's ills on a tiny minority of desperate people is not the answer.”
Brazil acknowledged the public’s frustration over “rising costs, stretched public services, and a growing sense of disconnect,” but insisted that “we must treat asylum seekers with the dignity and respect we would expect for ourselves.” Efforts by a Reform councillor and an Independent member, Ed Hill, reportedly persuaded protesters to move away from the hotel on September 6, after explaining the distressing circumstances faced by the residents.
Nationally, the UK government faces its own set of challenges. With over 32,000 asylum seekers currently housed in hotels, officials are now considering expanding the use of military sites to accommodate people seeking refuge. The debate over how to house and support asylum seekers has become a political fault line, with some arguing for compassion and others pushing for stricter controls and alternative accommodations.
Political rhetoric around asylum seekers has intensified, with some voices warning of the dangers of scapegoating vulnerable populations. At the annual Trades Union Congress conference on September 9, 2025, John McDonnell, the independent MP and former Labour shadow chancellor, called Reform UK a “proto-fascist” party and compared its leader, Nigel Farage, to Adolf Hitler. According to The Canary, McDonnell described Farage as a “demagogue” targeting asylum seekers, saying, “Reform are a proto-fascist organisation. We’ve seen it in the ‘30s. What they do, they have a demagogue speaking for them, they target a particular group, in the thirties in Germany it would have been the Jews, here it is asylum seekers. We’ve seen it all before.”
McDonnell called for unity among left-wing parties and organizations to oppose the rise of the far-right, referencing the anti-fascist popular fronts of the 1930s. He also criticized the Labour Party for “dancing to Farage’s tune” with anti-asylum seeker rhetoric, lamenting, “I hide under the duvet sometimes in the morning, I don’t want to turn on the news to hear another Labour announcement that we’re attacking asylum seekers in some way.”
As these stories unfold, the common threads are impossible to ignore: fear and frustration on all sides, the vulnerability of those seeking safety, and the struggle of communities to balance compassion with concerns about resources and security. The rhetoric—whether in city council chambers, on protest lines, or in parliamentary debates—has real-world consequences, shaping the experiences of newcomers and the communities they hope to join.
In Oswego, Falkirk, Exeter, and beyond, the challenge remains the same: how to respond to the realities of migration in a way that honors both the safety and dignity of asylum seekers and the legitimate concerns of local residents. The outcome of these debates will shape not just policy, but the very character of the communities themselves.