The Supreme Court stops Ayuso and Vox: rejects paralyzing the regularization of migrants
In the first month and a half, 549,596 applications have been submitted, of which 91,905 have begun to be processed
MadridThe Supreme Court has blocked the pretensions of the government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso and Vox and has rejected temporarily paralyzing the extraordinary regularization of migrants that began a month and a half ago. The Contentious-Administrative Chamber decided this after five hearings held this morning, which served for the Madrid executive, the far-right party, and three ultra associations to attack the regularization process. In one of them, the State Attorney announced that by May 21, 549,596 applications had been submitted and 91,905 had begun to be processed. Those who passed the first filter received a provisional authorization to work. In many cases, they were people who had jobs: they were working illegally and now do so legally or have found work elsewhere. "We are not talking about entry, but about a radically different issue. We are talking about a group of people who were in Spain, who can prove five months of residence and who had a deficit in access to rights," argued the State Attorney. He also highlighted that the regularization serves to "respond to the challenges of the labor market" and "avoid" people working illegally.
Far from these arguments, the lawyer for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's executive urged the court to "empathize" with the public managers who will have to face the consequences of regularization and warned of what he considers to be the dangers it entails: "These are people who will be claimants for benefits, which must be dimensioned abruptly. Immediately, the collapse that this will mean for social services can be intuited and presumed," he stated. Likewise, he acknowledged that the population "must be attended to" to avoid "social conflict".
For their part, Jorge Buxadé, a Vox lawyer, boasted that Santiago Abascal's party "has made the fight against illegal immigration an essential element" of its political platform and assured that regularization will cause a "brutal increase in social spending," will affect "the electoral structure," and will "modify" Congress and the Senate. However, the State Attorney – on behalf of the Spanish government – has discredited his argument. "No matter how much one wants to rush, in no case will these people be able to vote in the next elections, it's as simple as that," he justified. The reality is that the period to obtain Spanish nationality – which is what allows one to vote in Spanish elections – is between five and ten years. Only in exceptional cases, such as people marrying Spaniards or people born in the State, can the time be shorter, but there will still not be enough time for 2027.
Patricia Fernández, a lawyer for the Association Pro Human Rights of Spain and the Coordinadora de Barris, argued that suspending regularization would have a "direct impact" on the 147,000 children who could benefit from it. And Javier Moreno, a lawyer for the Jesuit Migrant Service, argued that it would cause "great harm" to the Spanish economy, especially in the construction, agriculture, and care sectors, where a large part of this labor force is employed. For their part, Javier María Pérez-Roldán, a lawyer for Hazte Oír, called for regularization to be halted to prevent "consolidated rights" that are irreversible from occurring. And he gave the example of return or expulsion files: "The archiving or revocation will be final because they cannot be reopened," he argued.
Criminal records
The State Attorney's Office has also had to address statements regarding criminal record backgrounds. "Talking about the possibility of regularization with no criminal record is simply not reading what the decree has finally become," he stated. In the first draft, in the absence of an official document proving no criminal record, a self-declaration was allowed. In fact, Junts and the PP "}wanted to ally in Congress to reverse it", but the Congress's Bureau prevented it. Finally, after the opinion of the Council of State, the Spanish government amended it to make it mandatory. "Thousands of people are making an extraordinary effort to request their criminal records from their countries of origin. This, undoubtedly, demonstrates the strict filter that exists," emphasized Javier Moreno.