What do anti-racist organizations say about the transfer of immigration powers?

BarcelonaAlthough many Catalan parties welcomed the agreement for the Generalitat to assume more responsibilities regarding immigration, the text has failed to generate consensus among anti-racist organizations and those working with migrants in Catalonia. However, beyond the bill doomed to fail this Tuesday due to Podemos' veto, there is one point on which they all agree: the urgent need is to reform the immigration law and the "precarious" living conditions it imposes on migrants who arrive or are already in Spain. The hardening of Junts' immigration rhetoric is also a shared concern among anti-racist groups, who are simultaneously warning of the European Union's shift in direction. with the migration pact, which seals borders and threatens human rightsFrom there, there are those who believe that Ione Belarra's party is right to assert itself and try to use its four representatives to get the PSOE to move forward with the regularization. announced (and pending), and some believe that Podemos has relied on fallacious arguments to justify its vote.

"The priority should be regularization, not increasing police forces for immigration control," sources from Regularización Ya, the organization that promoted the popular legislative initiative (ILP) of the same name, told ARA. to give papers to half a million migrants –now stranded–. The organization fully supports Podemos' position in this negotiation, which it has asked Sumar and ERC to assume, and warns that, according to the second additional provision of the text, the agreement would entail an increase in the number of Mossos d'Esquadra officers: specifically, by 26,800 until 2032, with the aim of "complying with the delegated powers." For this platform, this is "very dangerous" because it would mean the Mossos d'Esquadra would join the Civil Guard and the National Police in detaining irregular migrants whom they encounter, for example, at demonstrations or evictions. Currently, the Catalan police already carry out this type of work alongside the National Police and the Civil Guard, even making transfers to CIE (Civil Defense Units).

For or against?

From Regularization NOW, which brings together some 900 groups, they insist that they are "neither for nor against" the transfer of power to the government. However, they insist that it must be rejected, at least until Junts stops "hijacking" the ILP on regularization and abandons a discourse that, in their opinion, seeks to compete electorally with the far-right Catalan Alliance. This argument is also supported by Unity Against Fascism and Racism. Both organizations denounce an offense that highlights the rise of racist positions within institutions: the obstacles that a total of 37 city councils in Catalonia currently place on registering for residents, according to a report from the Network of Entities for the Registry, despite the training courses that the Generalitat has implemented to prevent this.

This list includes mayors from Junts, but also from the PSC and ERC. However, the Unit Against Fascism and Racism points out that it is the mayors of the Junts party who have championed what would allow them to carry out the transfer agreed with the PSOE regarding the inspections associated with the census and the mafias that charge for fraudulently facilitating registration. For example, the mayor of Sant Cugat, Josep Maria Vallès, did so: "If we had the authority, we could surely resolve it ourselves. We would get to work, as we have done with the inspections, and we could carry out the complaint process and initiate the investigation," the mayor told RAC1. These statements have scandalized the organization, which maintains that if there are mafias, it is because of the difficulties that city councils create for newcomers in registering. "If they want to do the same as with the census law, they don't need powers for that," lament sources from the organization.

On the other hand, and after the controversy generated by Ione Belarra stating that the transfer would mean that the Mossos d'Esquadra carried out more "racist" raidsRegularization Now, and Unity Against Fascism add that ethnic profiling now exists. This was also reported by SOS Racisme, which has been studying how the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) implement so-called "racial profiling" since 2018. However, regarding the law agreed upon between Junts and the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party), and in response to this newspaper, SOS Racisme asserts that it has no assessment.

In favor of decentralization

But there are also organizations that, beyond the agreed text, are in favor of the transfer of powers. The NGO League of Peoples' Rights, for example, considers the law to have "more positive aspects and others that are more questionable." Among the latter, they include the preamble, which they consider "more than deficient," as it fails to recognize the "debt" of the Global North to the Global South and the responsibility that world powers have for conflicts and inequalities in impoverished countries following migratory flows. However, this NGO does consider it positive that Catalonia can assume greater powers and considers Belarra's statements asserting that the transfer would entail "a disastrous outcome." per se Greater institutional racism on the part of the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan Police).

The decentralized model is also, from the outset, the one most favored by the Catalan Commission for Action on Refugees. They are not concerned about the "discursive framework" and the "restrictive approach" of the law. Regarding the text agreed upon by the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) and Junts (Junts), sources within the organization warn that the priority should be for migrants to become "full citizens," and not to enact legislation that condemns them to the margins of society (but still working in precarious sectors) until they are eligible for residency permits.