The senators “musticated” this Wednesday in committee the immigration bill, by adopting a series of amendments, such as the tightening of the conditions of access to family reunification, thus giving a twist to the text, the next hot file of the Government .
The bill, which provides for both measures to facilitate the expulsion of offending foreigners and an integration component, in particular through a controversial residence permit in “short-term jobs”, will be examined from March 28 in the Senate, dominated by the opposition right. The vote is scheduled for April 4, before moving to the National Assembly around the summer.
Restricted eligibility criteria for family reunification
“The law commission deplored the lack of ambition of the government text and its many blind spots, above all, to fill the gaps in the bill,” the Senate commission summarized in a press release.
“We have tried to erase a certain number of attractions and ask for more integration capacity,” said Muriel Jourda (LR), one of the two rapporteurs.
The latter have toughened the eligibility criteria for family reunification: linguistic level, length of stay, resource conditions… Many points on which the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had already declared himself in favor before the senators at the end of of FEBRUARY.
Refusal of the LR to vote for a text “where there would be calls to the air”
The senators also tightened the conditions to benefit from the “sick foreigner” residence permit. The text approved in commission also foresees the possibility that the Parliament determine each year “objectives” -or quotas- for immigration.
The senators once again gave the green light to an amendment to transform state medical assistance (AME), reserved for undocumented immigrants, into emergency medical assistance exclusively.
The head of the senators LR Bruno Retailleau had indicated on Sunday that his group would not vote for a text “where there would be calls for air”, mentioning article 3, which plans to create a “live work” residence permit and article 4, allow some asylum seekers to work “without delay”.
There are “two points of view that are discussed” between the two speakers on these two articles, declared the president of the Law Commission François-Noël Buffet (LR). “We wanted the debate to take place in session,” he added.
Anger of associations hostile to the text
“The Legal Commission has just considerably toughened the bill. Anything goes: AME, toughening of access to nationality, (…) aggravated expulsions even of protected people,” lamented the group “United against disposable immigration” on Twitter “, which brings together hostile associations to the text.
“The regressive party begins,” commented Pierre Henry, president of the French fraternities, who had participated in the consultations on the text. “The cost of LR joining the retirement law?”
“Amendments by certain LRs that flirt with the ideology of the RN… promises for debate in session,” the president of the majority communist group CRCE, Eliane Assassi, also tweeted.
Source: BFM TV
