Disputed French immigration law in Constitutional Council for review, approval

By Nur Asena Erturk

ANKARA (AA) – The French president has sent the much-disputed immigration law to the Constitutional Council for review and approval, according to an official statement.

The council shared a statement on its website on Tuesday, showing that President Emmanuel Macron sent the new law to the council on Dec. 21.

Two other statements showed that the president of the National Assembly and a group of lawmakers also separately sent the law to the council last week so that it could start reviewing it.

The council is in charge of verifying the law's compatibility with the Constitution before the president promulgates it.

This council can also remove the articles that do not respect the Constitution.

The law was adopted on Dec. 19 after fracturing the political majority in the parliament.

The first version of the bill was de facto rejected by lawmakers when the Green groups' motion to dismiss was adopted even before the first parliamentary debate on Dec. 11.

The government formed a joint committee of seven senators and seven MPs who found a consensus between the majority and the opposition, with a reviewed version of the text.

After the Senate's passage of the revised text, lawmakers mostly voted in favor of the new version which was hardened even more.

Article 3 in the initial version aimed to give a one-year residency permit under certain conditions to irregular foreign workers who operate in "sectors under tension" – sectors that suffer labor shortages. But the new version gives city prefects the power to accept or reject a foreigner's request to regularize.

The crime of irregular residency was reinstated after its cancellation in 2012. Those who commit it will be fined €3,750 ($4,100) and prohibited from entering France for three years.

The law also hardens the eligibility criteria for social aid.

It also removes the automatic right of the soil for children born to foreign parents in France.