The Barnier government announces a new immigration law for 2025, with a tightening of administrative detention

The Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, won his case. The government announced on Sunday October 13 a new law on immigration, the examination of which could begin as soon as “early 2025” in Parliament, just 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 “administrative detention” illegal aliens deemed dangerous, said https://twitter.com/BFMTV/status/1845420712116248934 government spokesperson Maud Bregeon.

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 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”only one year after the promulgation of the last immigration law.

At the beginning of October, the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, 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 “progress possible but within the framework of current law”he declared on France 2.

But the pressure was probably too much. 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.

“Legislative horsemen”

The previous law, promulgated on January 26, was the subject of very tense debates even within the former presidential majority which was able to have the text voted on thanks to the abstention of RN deputies.

« Quotas » migration restrictions 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 Macronist camp had conceded to the right, in particular to Bruno Retailleau, then powerful boss of LR 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 be rejected on their merits.

Measures censored by the Constitutional Council “will serve as the basis for the new immigration bill”a government source told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “Some could be modified and there will be additions”.

Maud Bregeon assured that the government would discuss with “all parliamentary groups” and was not going “not seek support from the National Rally”. The new law promises new heated debates in a tense parliamentary context, with a National Assembly where the fragile Barnier coalition does not have a majority.

“Scapegoat”

The left is already denouncing a gift given to Marine Le Pen and the RN. “We have a government (…) which gives us an immigration law as a pledge to the extreme right. All this is sewn with white thread”reacted the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure.

“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 Ecologist and social group, Cyrielle Chatelain, regretted “a legislative accumulation that solves nothing” and has already “destroys the lives of many people”.

Thirty-two laws on immigration and foreigners have been adopted since 1980 in France, according to the Museum of the History of Immigration.

Certain voices within the Macronist camp could also welcome the government’s announcement very freshly. “What we need is the implementation of the European asylum and migration pact and the application of the December 2023 law, certainly not a new law based on populist foundations”MP Guillaume Gouffier (Together for the Republic) has already reacted.

NGOs are also up in arms. Bruno Retailleau “only has the word “Republic” on his mouth, but he sees no problem in continuously damaging it, betraying everything that France embodies in the defense of human rights”denounced the former socialist minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, today president of France Terre d’Asile.

“As budgetary austerity will demolish public services and French jobs, we must find a scapegoat”lamented Benoît Hamon, director of the NGO Singa working for the professional integration of refugees and migrants.