Immigration law: medical care, benefits, land rights… These are the measures with which the government wants to seduce the Republic of Lithuania

Negotiations over the immigration law reach a peak this Sunday evening. Republican representatives Elisabeth Bourne and Gérald Darmanin are being hosted in Matignon for an evening of talks ahead of the decisive day this Monday. Indeed, a joint committee of seven MPs and seven senators is due to decide the fate of the immigration bill on Monday.

But since Wednesday, negotiations between the right and the government have been going well, and points of compromise already seem to be emerging. We take stock.

Government health care removed from immigration law

The senators’ text planned to convert this AME, which allows irregular aliens to access health care services, into an Emergency Medical Unit (AMU).

Several ministers, in unison with the medical community, showed very strong opposition to this reform from the very beginning, and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, considered it a legislative impudence, that is, a measure not directly related to the reform. text and, as such, may be subject to censorship by the Constitutional Council. The right and the government seem to have agreed to remove this topic from the text, provided that the government quickly introduces a separate bill on this issue.

“I believe this is the agreement we are in, an immigration text without AME” but “which will be discussed from January,” Gérald Darmanin said on BFMTV on Sunday.

Regularization of undocumented immigrants: word from the prefects

The key provision of the text and one of the most controversial provides for the legalization of some illegal workers in scarce professions. The version published by the Senate leaves prefects with “discretionary” power in the matter.

“We are committed to this article, we have no reason to change it,” said Hervé Marcel, president of the centrist Union group in the Senate. The government would be willing to let things go, even if the devil was in the details. “We are trying to agree that it will be automatic if there is no response from the prefect: we should not embolize the prefectures,” said a source in the Renaissance parliament.

The Home Secretary suggested on Sunday that employer approval would no longer be required for illegal immigrants to make a request. The prefect “will be able to legalize people, in particular those who want to be regularized but whose employer refuses to grant regularization,” he said.

Loss of citizenship, end of automaticity of land law

The government would agree to include a measure to revoke the citizenship of dual nationals who have committed crimes against the police. “It doesn’t bother me,” said MoDem President Francois Bayrou. An extension to citizenship stripping proposed by Francois Hollande after the November 2015 attacks sparked months of controversy before being abandoned.

The executive would also be open to a measure requiring young people born in France to foreign parents to demonstrate their desire to acquire French citizenship in order to obtain it.

Minors in pre-trial detention centers, temporary placement

According to consistent sources, the right has agreed to a ban on the detention of minors in administrative detention centers (ADCs). A measure aimed at satisfying the left wing of the government.

The law would also agree to retain the right to temporary housing for people subject to the obligation to leave French territory (OQTF).

Appropriations: the government could give in, but…

One measure continues to generate lively debate: the issue of social benefits paid to foreigners in the legal situation. The Senate text plans to give them five years of residency to qualify for benefits such as individual housing assistance (APL) or family benefits, up from six months currently.

“We are not for this article, then we must take a step,” said Gérald Darmanin on this issue, sparking discussions about the required period of residence, the possible exclusion of disabled people, a different regime for “those who work.” ” and “those who do not work.”

However, MP from the Revival Party Astrid Panosyan expressed reluctance, fearing “a slap in the face in the way we built social protection in our country.” “It’s called national preference. And this is the program of the National Union,” responded the leader of the Socialist deputies, Boris Vallo.

Another measure contested by the Ministry of Democracy: the establishment of a “deposit” for foreign students. The right has other demands, such as removing Article 4 on the right to work for some asylum seekers, or reinstating the offense of illegal residence.