The PP continues to raise the tone against the extraordinary regularization of immigrants approved this Tuesday by the Council of Ministers. The popular leader, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, criticized this Wednesday the “bulk” regularization and insisted on linking it to crime, despite the royal decree stipulating that residence will not be granted to foreigners who represent “a threat to public order, public security or public health.” “That an immigrant who has committed a crime, who has abused a woman or who has robbed a citizen and who has repeatedly violated Spanish law, the Government regularizes them, has no precedent in any EU country,” Feijóo emphasized in the corridors of Congress, although the Government has tightened the requirements regarding criminal records in the regulation following the recommendations of the Council of State. The Minister of Migrations, Elma Saiz, defended the royal decree in an interview on TVE and responded to the PP leader that it is a process for “people in an irregular situation, not for criminals,” she recalled that they are required to have “no criminal record” and indicated that the PP is not “boycotting the Government with these statements, but thousands of citizens.”
Feijóo stopped before journalists after this morning’s control session and stressed that the most important thing for him about what happened in the Plenary is that the Government did not provide the PP’s question about how many immigrants will be regularized in this process. The leader of the popular party spoke of “police records” and not criminal records, since criminal records are expressly contemplated in the royal decree approved this Tuesday by the Government, and residence will not be granted to foreigners who have them. Sources from Feijóo’s office explain that the PP leader refers to a case that might escape current regulation, such as a foreigner who has committed minor thefts or a sexual abuse for which there is not yet a conviction and, therefore, does not yet have a criminal record, only police records.
The text of the royal decree makes it clear that each case will be carefully examined to ensure the person does not pose a threat to security, reports Carmen Morán. The regulation requires applicants for regularization to “not represent a threat to public order, public security or public health” and states that this will be verified “by checking the absence of criminal records and assessing the corresponding police report.” “The existence of records in the police report will not, by itself and automatically, be grounds for denial of authorization,” the text adds. And it emphasizes: “In that case, the competent authority processing the application will assess on a case-by-case and detailed basis that the foreign person does not pose a threat to public order, internal security, public health or the international relations of any of the Member States of the European Union.”
In this regard, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, Elma Saiz, emphasized that the decree requires the absence of criminal records, as established by immigration regulations: “Enough with excuses, obstacles, trying to sabotage the hope, the dignity of thousands of people by the Popular Party. Two years ago, the Popular Party voted in favor in the Congress of Deputies, gave the green light to the ILP for extraordinary organization. Which side is the PP on? Is it on the side of the Church, productive sectors, the people or is it on the side of Vox?” she exclaimed before indicating that the PP “is not boycotting the Government with these statements, but is boycotting thousands of citizens who today, now that it is published in the Official State Gazette, have more hope, less fear, more rights, more obligations and more dignity.”
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The Foreigners’ File Processing Unit will obtain ex officio a report from the Central Registry of Convicts, the report from the European Union databases, as well as a police report on the applicant. These reports will be issued within fifteen days.
Feijóo has called the Government’s immigrant regularization “nonsense,” although he has advocated for “legal, orderly immigration that comes to contribute and comply with the laws and without criminal and police records.” The problem, he stressed, is “a bulk regularization” that causes a “pull effect” and that Spain becomes “the gateway to illegality in residence, not only in Spain but in the EU.”
