Immigration officers have arrested a dozen illegal workers in the last month alone in raids across Bradford, the Home Secretary said yesterday.

In total, 31 foreign nationals have been detained following raids in West Yorkshire, with employers facing fines of more than £300,000.

The figures were revealed yesterday by Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, as he announced three new immigration teams would be unveiled in Yorkshire early next year in a bid to crack down on illegal workers.

Mr Johnson said: “Their work will continue to focus on illegal working and removing those with no right to be in the UK, as well as tackling more organised immigration crime.”

Arrests by the UK Border Agency in Bradford have included a man who immigration officers detained in a swoop last month in Manningham.

In July, officials arrested seven brides and grooms from Nigeria and Eastern Europe, who were on their way to churches in Scholes and Cleckheaton in a marriage scam.

Since April, more than 338 people who were in Britain illegally have been removed from West Yorkshire back home.

Entry for non-EU low-skilled workers is now suspended and the Prime Minister has announced a review of student visas to toughen up entry rules, the Home Secretary said.

Electronic border controls count people in and out of the country, and visas and ID cards for foreign nationals, which contain fingerprint data, have also been introduced to cut the risk of identity fraud.

Shipley MP Philip Davies said: “I think the UK Border Agency would be much better trying to deal with a huge backlog of immigration cases and less time blowing their own trumpets when they’ve not got much of a tune.

“It strikes me that the first thing they should be doing is getting some proper controls on our borders.

“Only when they have done that should they think about employing more people to remove illegal immigrants from the country.”