Ayuso agrees to accept migrant minors but plans to send them to an industrial park.

MadridIsabel Díaz Ayuso will go to court to prevent the Spanish government, supported by Junts and the other investiture partners, from imposing the distribution of migrant minors in the Canary Islands. Be that as it may, the Madrid president will not prevent them from arriving in her region, but she is already preparing to place them in an industrial estate in Fuenlabrada, which has angered the Madrid opposition. The Community of Madrid, which vehemently criticizes the fact that it should be the one receiving the most while Catalonia should be the one receiving the least—ignoring the fact that the Catalan administration has made a greater effort to accommodate them in recent years—argues that its centers are also "saturated" and suggests that the facilities in the Fuenlabrada industrial estate, a municipality with a Socialist mayor, are too full.

This possibility has outraged the Madrid opposition, which accuses Ayuso of "racism," seeking to isolate the minors, and of using them politically to wear down the Socialists, who from the outset have rejected the idea that the Fuenlabrada center, in southern Madrid, is suitable for reception. The center began hosting minors in September 2024 and currently has around 100 places. According to provisional data, Madrid should receive around 800 of the people currently in the Canary Islands. The leader of the Madrid PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), Minister Óscar López, has called for a "transparent" distribution and for not everyone to go to that center. "In the middle of nowhere, without speaking with the municipalities, without objective, homogeneous, and solidarity-based criteria," criticized the mayor of Fuenlabrada, Javier Ayala, on X regarding the proposal to send them all there.

From Más Madrid, the Minister of Health, Mónica García, has criticized Ayuso for "ignoring human rights" and that "crowding them" in Fuenlabrada is "a kind of punishment." García has accused her of "racism and xenophobia." While the Madrid president deploys a discourse that presents Madrid as a region open to immigration "in general" and to welcoming new populations, she also expresses reluctance toward certain arrivals. "One type of immigration is not the same as another," she has said on occasion, referring to the fact that she feels comfortable with the arrival of Latin American or Ukrainian immigrants, but is wary of those of African origin, arguing that there are greater cultural differences.

The Community of Madrid also maintains that since 2019 it has cared for 10,618 unaccompanied minors. According to figures provided by Ayuso's executive, 2,442 were cared for in 2024, and almost a thousand in the first months of this year. Ayuso's government spokesperson, Miguel Ángel García Martín, accused the Spanish government in a press conference on Wednesday of selling out to Carles Puigdemont's requests to remain in power and "giving the appearance that technical criteria" guide the figures assigned to each autonomous region. Ayuso's chief of staff, Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, already argued yesterday on X that "Madrid welcomes more minors than Catalonia based on population." Ayuso's right-hand woman alleges that the 2,643 minors cared for by the Generalitat in 2024—200 more than Madrid—actually represent fewer in relative terms. Once again, however, this ignores the previous efforts made by Catalonia, which since 2017 has received 17,284 unaccompanied minors, according to Catalan government data.

The Minister of Youth and Children, Sira Rego, countered that the autonomous communities have until March 31st to update their data, which could "change the picture" of the distribution, and emphasized that the regions will have a year to adapt their reception systems to absorb the new arrivals. In April, Rego will bring them all together to address this issue at a sectoral conference.

Abascal attacks the PP's avoidance of the issue.

The reception of immigrants arriving in the Canary Islands was one of the hot topics this Wednesday in the Spanish government's scrutiny session, but PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo avoided criticizing the distribution face-to-face with Sánchez in Congress. The PP's state leadership did denounce it on Tuesday as an "imposition" and expressed its opposition. However, the following day, Feijóo did not attack from that angle, unlike Santiago Abascal, and avoided a debate that puts him on the ropes. The PP is not only forced to adopt the far-right's rhetoric in this area, but also rejecting the distribution to its fullest extent would mean breaking the law. The PP will comply, although this would jeopardize Vox's support for the Valencian budget and for the rest of the autonomous regions, which Génova encourages to reach more agreements to secure budgets.

In fact, one of the autonomous regions most strongly rejecting the arrival of immigrant minors is the Valencian Community, where Carlos Mazón begins processing the budget this Thursday with Vox. The far right has been warning for months that the migration pact is a red line that the PP cannot cross if they want to count on their votes in the autonomous regions where they govern in a minority. As expected, the Socialist leader counterattacked with the PP's pacts with Vox. "He's trying to cover up a mistake by making a more serious one. He's avoiding removing Mazón by embracing the far right," Sánchez criticized.

The Vox leader did use immigration in Congress. In his question, he focused on accusing Sánchez of being in favor of the "Islamization of Spain" and argued that migrant minors should be returned to their countries of origin because distributing them among autonomous regions only generates "insecurity and ruin." A measure that will also lead to justice. Abascal also attacked, using last week's protest in Salt as an argument"What threatens our country's democracy isn't immigration, but the techno-oligarchs you're rolling out the red carpet for," Sánchez responded.