Announced by Maud Bregeon on the set of BFM TV this Sunday, October 13, the future text should notably make it possible to extend the period of administrative detention of illegal immigrants deemed dangerous.
And one more. The government announced on Sunday October 13 a new law on immigration, the examination of which could begin “early 2025” in Parliament. That is only one year after the previous text on the subject which had fractured the majority in the National Assembly. “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 aliens deemed dangerous, government spokesperson Maud Bregeon explained on BFMTV.
First of all, one of the main avenues envisaged is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is currently only possible in relation to terrorist offences. A proposal recently put on the table by the very right-wing Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau. But, “we are not stopping ourselves 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”.
A previous law promulgated last January
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. «Quotas» migration restrictions set by Parliament, reinstatement of the offense of illegal residence, the deposit required from foreign students in France to plan their return, 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 the current Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, then head of the LR senators and great architect of the hardening of the text. In total, 32 of the 35 rejected provisions were considered to be “legislative riders”without sufficient link 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 are, this time, rejected on their merits.
“Bases for the new project”
Measures censored by the Constitutional Council “will serve as a basis for the new immigration bill”a government source said on Sunday. “Some could be modified and there will be additions”. Maud Bregeon assured that the government would discuss with “all parliamentary groups” ahead of his presentation. “We are not going to seek support from the National Rally”she said while Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN deputies, made the absence of a new law on immigration a “red line” which could trigger government censorship.
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 very 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 on a roll. “We have a government with this 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, interviewed on France Info. “Here we go again for weeks of saturation of the public debate around the themes of the extreme rightadded MP Benjamin Lucas (Generation. s). CThe government and those who support it are arsonists, collaborators with Lepenism.”
