A package of three immigration bills is set to be pass the Senate after the coalition backed proposed laws that give the government sweeping powers to deport non-citizens and institute a travel ban.

Advocates have described the measures as a “cruelty package” that would imperil thousands of refugees and asylum-seekers.

Liberal immigration spokesman Dan Tehan says the coalition negotiated with the government to bolster the bills in order to maintain community safety.

He was referring to the landmark High Court ruling in 2023, which found indefinite immigration detention was unlawful and unconstitutional.

It triggered the release of some 200 detainees with criminal offences who were strapped with ankle monitors and slapped with curfews.

“We are basically running the immigration system for the government because they have failed to be able to do it themselves,” Mr Tehan told reporters on Wednesday.

“This is us setting the agenda when it comes to national security and immigration and the government I hope will admit that thanks to us our immigration system is getting to a state where it is not a complete and utter joke.”

Some of the proposed amendments to the Migration Act include paying third countries to accept foreign nationals who have been convicted of crimes, but under the legislation it could impact tens of thousands of non-citizens.

An inquiry revealed more than 80,000 people may be affected, but the Department of Home Affairs maintains the legislation impacts about 5000 people on bridging visas and another 1000 in immigration and community detention.

The government has not said which nations it is talking to over the issue.

It would grant extensive immunity to government officials and those in third countries involved with the removals, as well as reversing protection findings for refugees.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke introduced another bill that would confiscate mobile phones from detainees and use sniffer dogs in immigration detention centres.

The minister said the powers were needed to end a “prison-like” culture.

Liberal senator James Paterson also took credit for the government’s hardline stance on immigration, while criticising their management of the problematic portfolio.

“A lot of the measures in these bills are longstanding coalition objectives when it comes to the migration system, in particular the detention centre powers bill,” he said.

“Immigration detention centres are out of this control on this government’s watch and they’ve recognised that their decision to vote against those bills twice in previous parliaments was not in the national interest.”

The third bill, which Labor first introduced in March before being shot down, gives the home affairs minister unilateral power to ban visa classes for relatives of asylum-seekers from blacklisted nations that don’t accept deportees.

People from Iran, Iraq, Russia and South Sudan had been floated as possible targets of the ban.

The Greens, who described the revived bill as a “Trump-style ban”, previously blocked the legislation along with the coalition and cross bench.

Refugee Council of Australia CEO Paul Power said the bills were some of “the most harmful and extreme” in more than a decade, “and the speed with which they’re being pushed through makes it all the more shocking.”

This post was originally published on Michael West.