Everything you need to know about why British Home Secretary Amber Rudd just quit

The British Home Secretary resigned Sunday over a government scandal in which immigrants who had lived in Britain for decades were made homeless, denied welfare benefits, and even deported.

Amber Rudd was replaced by Sajid Javid on Monday following her mishandling of the “Windrush” case.

Her resignation followed weeks of pressure culminating with opposition MPs calling for her head in recent days over her botched response to the scandal.

Rudd said she resigned after “inadvertently misleading” lawmakers in the U.K. parliament last week, claiming her department didn’t have specific targets for deporting migrants.

This was at odds with a 2017 letter published Sunday by The Guardian in which Rudd told Prime Minister Theresa May of her intention to increase deportations by 10 percent.

In Sunday’s resignation letter, Rudd said she had “become aware of information provided to my office which makes mention of targets. I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility that I was not.”

May said Sunday she believed Rudd had given evidence “in good faith” but that she could “understand why, now you have had chance to review the advice that you have received on this issue, you have made the decision you have made, and taken responsibility for inadvertently misleading the home affairs select committee.”

The appointment of Javid — the son of immigrants and the first Muslim or person of color to hold the senior cabinet post — is being seen as a move that could help rebuild the government’s relationship with migrant communities.

The so-called Windrush generation arrived in the U.K. from the Caribbean after World War II, invited by the U.K. government to help rebuild the country. The first group arrived in June 1948 on the ship MV Empire Windrush.

Many of these immigrants, in particular the children who traveled on their parents’ passports, were never formally naturalized and in some cases have never had a passport.

The Home Office failed to keep a record of people that entered the country or were granted leave to remain. The government conferred such leave to anyone living continuously in the U.K. since before January 1, 1973.

During the past six months, stories have emerged in the press of immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.K. for more than fifty years being detained, made homeless, sacked, denied welfare benefits and refused treatment on the National Health Service because they couldn’t prove they are British.

This stems from a 2014 Home Office policy, set out by Theresa May when she was home secretary, to make the U.K. “a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.”

The policy requires everyone from landlords to NHS staff to employers to demand proof of citizenship or immigrant status.

Rudd last week told the home affairs select committee that the Home Office did not have targets for removals. When it emerged this was false, she was forced back before Parliament to admit there were targets but that she would be eliminating them.

A six-page memo prepared for the Home Office leaked Friday revealing the department had “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18.”

Rudd responded on Twitter saying: “I wasn't aware of specific removal targets. I accept I should have been and I'm sorry that I wasn't.”

She was due to make a statement to the House of Commons Monday but the leaked letter to May Sunday forced Rudd to resign.

Cover image: Amber Rudd leaves after an emergency cabinet meeting at Downing Street on April 12, 2018 in London, England. (Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)