moved.

Border control remains crucial. The Blair government has steadily increased resources for securing the borders, particularly in the wake of an estimate published in 2005 of the number of illegal immigrants (about 430,000 or 0.7 percent of the population). However, ministers have consistently refused to cap the number of legal immigrants entering the country.

On an institutional level, the Blair government made a number of changes. The most far-reaching change is likely to prove the heavy investment in technology for border security, including increased spending on biometrics, part of a vision of "identity management" that will check each unique person in and out of the country.

Most visibly, in 2007, the government announced plans to break up the Home Office into two separate departments, a Ministry of Justice, and anew, streamlined Home Office focused on crime, immigration, and terrorism. Consistent reforms to the immigration functions also reached their apogee in 2007, when, on April 2, the new Border and Immigration Agency opened for business. Formerly part of the Home Office, it is now an arm's-length agency, providing greater operational freedom. There has also been significantly more cooperation at the EU level, such as joint enforcement efforts to reduce illegal immigration.

In an attempt to reduce the number of people requesting asylum, the Blair government has further eroded the asylum system as a regime of protection. Although the UK has had to harmonize asylum procedures with those of other EU countries, it has also instituted new measures. These include exporting borders (setting up controls and visa regimes in countries