Clash between Moncloa and Ayuso's government at the Supreme Court over the regularization of immigrants: "It will be a collapse"
The State Attorney announces that 549,596 applications have been submitted, of which 91,905 have begun to be processed.
MadridSince the Spanish government announced an extraordinary regularization of migrants, the right and the PP warned that they would put up a fight. And the showdown – legal and with political undertones – has been consummated in the Supreme Court this Friday, with a hearing before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber considers the temporary suspension of the regularization. It has been requested, among others, by the Madrid government, Vox, and Hazte Oír. During one of the five hearings held, the State Attorney announced that as of May 21, 549,596 applications have been submitted and 91,905 have begun to be processed. Those who have passed the first filter have received provisional authorization to work. In many cases, these 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 regularization serves to "respond to the challenges of the labor market" and "prevent" people from working illegally.
Far from these arguments, the lawyer for Isabel Díaz Ayuso's executive urged the court, presided over by Carlos Lesmes, to "empathize" with the public officials who will have to face the consequences of the 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 scaled up 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 approach and assured that regularization will cause a "brutal increase in social spending," affect "the electoral structure" and "modify" Congress and the Senate. However, the State lawyer – 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 voting 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 also not be enough time by 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 prejudice" 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 stopped to prevent "vested rights" that are irreversible from occurring. And he gave the example of return or expulsion files: "The closing 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 a lack of criminal records is simply not reading what the decree has finally become," he stated. In the first draft, in the absence of an official document proving that there are no criminal records, a responsible declaration could be submitted. 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 requesting criminal records from their countries of origin. This, undoubtedly, demonstrates the strict filter that exists," emphasized Javier Moreno.
