Moncloa vetoes stricter migrant regularization rules: says checking criminal records would cost 16 million euros

MadridThe Spanish government has vetoed the stricter migrant regularization rules that were scheduled to be approved this Thursday in Congress. Given that, as the ARA advancedAlthough Junts supported the amendment introduced by the PP in the Senate to the law on multiple recidivism to control the criminal records of applicants for residence permits and review police reports, Moncloa has decided to use the exceptional powers granted to it by the Constitution to stop it. According to SER And parliamentary sources confirm to this newspaper that the Spanish government will veto the changes through the Congress's governing board, arguing that they represent an extra cost to public coffers. Specifically, they have argued that reviewing the criminal records or pending cases of residency applicants would entail an expenditure of 16 million euros.

Invoking Article 134.6 of the Constitution, they assert that "manually consulting databases of the justice administration to obtain information on the various criminal cases corresponding to 100% of applicants for residence permits" or processing international applications to "obtain information" from other countries would entail creating 400 civil servant positions in the National Police's General Immigration Commission, at a cost of €41,967 per position. In total, this would represent "an estimated annual increase in funding for the central government of €16 million," argues the Moncloa Palace.

They also vetoed another amendment from the PP that proposed creating more prosecutor positions within two years. The Spanish government argues that this would cost the state coffers 53 million euros. In doing so, they blocked the majority in Congress formed by the PP, Junts, and Vox, which sought to limit the regularization of migrants agreed upon by the PSOE and Podemos.