The Minister of the Interior has set directives for 21 prefects, for 21 departments. With the aim of quickly reducing immigration into these territories.
Regularize less, expel more and develop the legal arsenal. Bruno Retailleau has a plan to reduce illegal, but also legal, immigration, and he made this known to the prefects invited to the Ministry of the Interior on Tuesday October 8. The minister did not wish to make a public statement on what was presented as a “crisis meeting”, dedicated to the execution of the obligations to leave French territory (OQTF), after the emotion generated in the country at the following the death of Philippine, in Paris.
However, we know, thanks to indiscretions reported by Le Mondethat this meeting made it possible to put concrete measures on the table, probably a timetable, but also and above all to set objectives for the 21 prefects convened. Because Bruno Retailleau wants to be efficient and rapid in implementing his ideas; he therefore chose to act first in 21 departments, which “concentrate 80% of the removal measures”.
“He asks the prefects to report to him and provide him with dashboards on the increase in expulsions and the drop in regularizations,” said an interlocutor of the minister, present at the meeting, to Le Monde. But if he wants figures and a precise observation, Bruno Retailleau also asked the prefects to apply a certain number of measures as soon as possible, based on provisions introduced by the immigration law of January 2024, which relaxes certain protections preventing the removal of individuals who arrived in France before the age of 13.
In these 21 territories, the minister also wants to toughen the “Valls circular” of 2012 to reduce the regularizations obtained because of their private, family life or their professional activity. According to information from Le Monde, the minister promised the prefects a “shorter and clearer” text to replace the provisions introduced by Manuel Valls, with new criteria such as “mastery of French” or “assimilation of French values”. to obtain regularization.
The minister also asked the prefects to extend the period of detention of foreigners likely to represent a threat to public order by instructing them, for these specific cases, to systematically appeal in the event of release decided by the judges. .
Which departments are affected by these first measures? Those of the 21 prefects summoned to the ministry, i.e. the following: Alpes-Maritimes, Bouches-du-Rhône, Haute-Garonne, Gironde, Hérault, Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique, Nord, Pas-de- Calais, Pyrénées-Orientales, Bas-Rhin, Rhône, Paris, Seine-Maritime, Seine-et-Marne, Yvelines, Essonne, Hauts-de-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, Val-de-Marne, Val-d’ Oise.