"These are our young people," Mr Kelly said. Border Force Commissioner Roman Quaedvlieg. Credit:Rohan Thomson "They go to our schools, they are brought up in our Australian communities, they buy video games in our department stores, they learn from Australian society like everybody, so to call for a deportation or keep focusing on their backgrounds or ethnicity is disingenuous or cowardly. "The Australian community is not taking responsibility." Apex - a gang of young people from multicultural backgrounds - rose to prominence after it was linked with the Moomba riots in the CBD in March.

It has also been blamed for a wave of violent home invasions and car-jackings Apex gang members rioting outside Flinders Street station last March Credit:@russmulry, via Twitter The gang was linked in the media with a violent car-jacking in Toorak on Monday morning where the stolen car was used for a home invasion in Cranbourne, though police have not said if the attackers were gang members. The four men responsible were described as of African and Pacific Islander appearance. It is unclear how many young people connected with Apex or other street gangs linked with recent crime were actually on visas. Many are also believed to be underage.

In an interview with Fairfax Media on Thursday, Mr Quaedvlieg said Border Force was not targeting Apex, and in fact, he had not heard of the gang until he was contacted by the Herald Sun on Wednesday. "Any notion we would use this tool as a blanket weapon against a group of people is nonsense. That is never going to happen," he said. "The manifestation of youth crime and violence has many complex causal factors and therefore many complex ... solutions "The character test is only one tool that should be used in extraordinary circumstances." The character test was introduced to the Migration Act in 2014, giving Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton the power to cancel the visas of suspected or convicted criminals.

If the Minister reasonably suspects a person is, or has been, a member or associate of a group that is involved in crime, regardless of whether that person has been convicted, they can be deported under the tougher character test. So far, the laws have been used to order foreign-born bikies and organised crime figures out of the country. Mr Quaedvlieg said if Victoria Police presented a case of an individual linked to Apex or any street gang, Border Force could suggest to Mr Dutton that they be deported. "It doesn't need to be patched bikies, if can be gangs of any nature and certainly if there are street gangs with a large number of migrants ... if the state and territory cops want to work with us in that regard, we're up for it," he said. Mr Kelly said using the "overwhelming threat" of an excessive law that can only be applied to certain sections of the Australian community was akin to "apartheid politics".

"It's inherently racist because it implies that race or ethnic background is a causal factor in their offending when we know that not to be true," he said. Assistant Commissioner Bob Hill sits over Taskforce Tense, the police operation targeting street gangs linked to the recent home invasions and car-jackings. Mr Hill told a press conference this week that out of the 70 young people arrested by the taskforce in six months, only 26 identified as belonging to Apex. Loading "We're providing this group with oxygen, notoriety they do not deserve. We have clear evidence that the majority of people charged don't have anything to do with Apex," he said.

Apex was originally founded by a group of young people of South Sudanese descent from Dandenong, but has expanded to include young people from a variety of different backgrounds including Pacific Islander, Middle Eastern and Caucasian.