Showing their disapproval, 32 left-wing departments announced that they would not apply part of the immigration law. This concerns the autonomy allowance. But do they have the right?
They denounce a “serious attack on the fundamental rights of people of foreign nationality”. The day after the adoption of the toughened version by the Joint Joint Commission of the immigration law by the Senate then by the National Assembly, 32 left-wing departments announced, Wednesday, December 20, that they would not apply it. Concretely, it is not the whole law that is in their sights, but the passage on the personalized autonomy allowance (APA).
This aid makes it possible to “pay (in full or in part) either the expenses necessary to stay at home, or the dependency rate of the medico-social establishment (example: Ehpad)”, explains the site Public service. This is assistance for which the departments are responsible and to which people in an irregular situation could until now have access by proving six months of residence in the department. From now on, it will be necessary to prove a residence of at least five years, or 30 months of professional activity, or 2 and a half years.
If the presidents of these left-wing departments have made their disapproval of this aspect of the immigration law known, what is the situation in concrete terms? Do they really have the right not to apply a law? The answer is no. Like any citizen, departments or any other local authority have a duty to respect the law, whether they like it or not. In the event of non-application, “they are exposed to annulments by the administrative courts which may be referred to the prefects if they do not respect the law”, explains Michel Verpeaux, professor of public law at the University of Paris-1, at ‘AFP including The Dispatch is particularly echoed.
However, the departments could also choose to circumvent the law by offsetting this aid with another. “I have the possibility, according to the law, to put in place so-called ‘voluntarist’ services, according to the criteria that the deliberative assembly will set”, underlined Stéphane Troussel, the president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis . For the moment, the matter remains that the Constitutional Council has been contacted and could itself decide to invalidate this provision if it judges it to be unconstitutional.