Bavarian AfD would introduce deportation police modelled on ICE
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AfD representatives in the Bavarian state parliament have said they would be in favour of introducing a deportation force modelled on the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Bavarian AfD for introducing German ICE
The AfD plans to introduce a "Asyl-, Fahndungs- und Abschiebegruppe" (“Asylum, Tracing and Deportation Group” or “AFA”) modelled on ICE should it enter government in Bavaria following state elections on March 8, 2026.
The Bavarian AfD would purchase its own deportation aircraft and said it would make life even more inhospitable for people seeking asylum in Germany, by cutting their financial support and giving them only “bread, a bed and soap”.
Currently, a single person seeking asylum in Germany receives 455 euros per month in financial support. By comparison, recipients of long-term unemployment benefits receive 563 euros per month.
Over the past 10 years, previous German governments have rolled back a number of laws protecting people seeking asylum in Germany from deportation, including giving police more power to conduct searches and making it easier to take potential deportees into custody.
Will the AfD enter government in Bavaria?
In the most recent “Sonntagsfrage” poll, which asks respondents who they would vote for if an election were held this Sunday, 39 percent of those surveyed in Bavaria said the CDU would have their vote. 19 percent would vote for the AfD, 13 percent for the Greens and 9 percent for the Freie Wähler.
Due to the firewall (Brandmauer), a cross-party agreement not to work with the AfD at the state or federal level, should the CDU win, the most likely election outcome is that the centre-right party forms a coalition with another party, but not with the AfD.
Despite the Brandmauer, a 2024 study by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation found that between the summer of 2019 and the end of 2023, Germany’s democratic parties cooperated with far-right parties in 121 instances in former eastern federal states, where the AfD is more popular.
The foundation found that of all democratic parties, the CDU had collaborated with the AfD the most frequently, predominantly by supporting motions put forward by the AfD.
Germany warns visitors to US
The announcement from the AfD in Bavaria comes as Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) called ICE shootings of civilians “very worrying”. Speaking on the ICE shooting of Alex Pretti on January 24, Merz said US authorities “should investigate if it was necessary to shoot in this case and if there was a real threat to the officers involved”.
Since the 37-year-old care worker was killed in Minnesota, the German government has urged German citizens travelling to the US to be “alert” and to stay away from “gatherings of people which could lead to violence”.
“Behave in a calm manner and follow the instructions of authorities and local security forces,” instructs a statement published on the Federal Foreign Office website on January 26.