The French government announced this Sunday, October 13, a new law on immigration, the examination of which could begin “early 2025” in Parliament, just one year after the previous text on the subject which had fractured the majority in the National Assembly. .
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Ten months after promulgation the very controversial Asylum and Immigration law by the National Assembly, the government of Michel Barnier announces a new text on immigration, the 33rd since 1980. “ There will be a need for a new law “, in particular to allow ” the extension of the duration of detention in administrative detention centers » illegal foreigners deemed dangerous, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon said this Sunday on BFMTV.
One of the options envisaged is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is currently only possible in relation to terrorist offences. “ We do not refrain from thinking about other arrangements », added the spokesperson, judging that there should not be “ no taboo when it comes to protecting the French “. The executive wants this text to reach Parliament “ early 2025 “.
Too much pressure
At the beginning of October, the Prime Minister seemed to rule out the possibility of a new text in such a short time frame. “ We have just legislated “, ” we will apply the rules “, there will be ” possible progress, but within the framework of the current law “, he declared on France 2. But the pressure, both external and internal, was undoubtedly too strong. Externally, with the National Rally which threatened to trigger government censorship if a new bill was not presented. Internally, with the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, taking a very hard line on the subject, who called for legislation in particular to extend administrative detention periods.
The previous law, promulgated on January 26, was the subject of very tense debates in Parliament as well as within the former presidential majority. The Macronist camp was able to get the text voted on thanks to the abstention of National Rally deputies. Migration “quotas” set by Parliament, reinstatement of the offense of illegal residence, return bond for foreign students, measures restricting family reunification or restricting land rights: the Constitutional Council had censored large sections of the text. The Sages had thus rebutted the main additions that the former presidential majority had conceded to the right and in particular to Bruno Retailleau, then powerful boss of the Les Républicains senators and great architect of the hardening of the text.
In total, 32 of the 35 rejected provisions were considered legislative riders, that is to say without sufficient connection with the initial bill. A formal reason which does not prejudge their substantive conformity with the Constitution. Nothing therefore excludes them from being proposed in the new text. Nor that they can, this time, be rejected on their merits.
New heated debates in perspective
The measures censored by the Constitutional Council “ will serve as the basis for the new immigration bill “, a government source told AFP on Sunday. “ Some may be changed and there will be additions “. Maud Bregeon assured that the government would discuss with “ all parliamentary groups » and was not going to “ not seek support from the National Rally “. At the end of September, deputies from Laurent Wauquiez’s Republican Right group tabled a bill to extend the detention period of illegal foreigners deemed dangerous after the murder in Paris of a young student, Filipina.
The new immigration law promises new heated debates in a tense parliamentary context, with a National Assembly where the fragile Barnier coalition does not have a majority. The left is already in full swing. “ We have a government with Bruno Retailleau who is giving us an immigration law as a pledge to the far right. All this is sewn with white thread », Reacted the First Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, on franceinfo. “ Here we go again for weeks of saturation of the public debate around the themes of the extreme right », added MP Benjamin Lucas (Génération.s). The president of the deputies of the Ecologist and social group, Cyrielle Chatelain regretted “ a legislative accumulation that resolves nothing » and has already “ destroyed the lives of many people “.
“ As budgetary austerity will demolish public services and French jobs, we must find a scapegoat », lamented Benoît Hamon, now director of the NGO Singa working for the professional integration of refugees and migrants.
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