Posted on 05/21/2007 5:02:22 PM PDT by July 4th
France's minister of immigration and national identity, a new ministry created by President Nicolas Sarkozy, has ruled out legalizing undocumented immigrants en masse.
The new ministry said today that government policy would be dictated by firmness and pragmatism.
"We have to put aside massive legalization. It doesn't work and it penalizes, even immigrants," Brice Hortefeux said on Europe 1 radio.
Policy, he said, would be guided by "firmness and humanism" with "lots of pragmatism."
He also said he planned to adhere to the policy of deporting illegal immigrants from France. The number of deportees was expected to reach some 25,000 this year, and Hortefeux said he would ensure that figure is reached.
Hortefeux, a longtime confidant of Sarkozy, was among those named to the new government on Friday.
The conservative Sarkozy, elected president May 6, had reached out to the anti-immigration far right to capture votes, notably ruffling some feathers in his own camp with his promise to create a ministry of immigration and national identity.
Hortefeux said he planned to meet shortly with officials from sectors like the building and hotel and restaurant industries, known to rely heavily on immigrants.
Hortefeux also said he would not put into question a long-standing policy of "family grouping," by which immigrants in France can bring their families here.
However, he indicated, as Sarkozy had, that modifications may be made in order to ensure that those who join other family members in France can be integrated.
"It must be carried out in respect for the dignity of those who want to come and (in a way) that favors their integration," he said.
Sarkozy had said he wants to ensure that those who join families in France can speak French and that family members receiving them can support the newcomers.
We have hoisted the white flag and France grimly soldiers on...
Viva la France !!!
Wish you were here!
Good reason for him to step aside from the issue entirely.
Truly amazing. It just shows what happens when you burn up the place.
Good grief.....France is getting SMARTER and we are getting DUMBER!!! MORE WINE!! MORE CHEESE!!! MORE SNAILS!!
Tell me who isn’t tougher on illegals than we are? Mexico is for sure.
pops open the grey goose
If the American People don’t understand the danger we are in by this time, then we are heading toward a dark period that will make the Civil War look like a mere family squabble. This is going to get much uglier before it gets better (if it ever gets better).
If the French can under what needs to be done with illegal immigrants, there has to be hope for us. Doesn’t there?
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And for those of you politically-correct lurkers, I'm part French, so I can say 'frog'. /sarc
Get Mssr Hortefeux over here and I'll vote for him for president over any of the GOP's top 3 at this point.
At least he has the common sense to know that you don't reward criminals for their crimes by giving them more of the thing that they committed the crime to get in the first place. If we applied the same principle to bank robbers that our jackass lawmakers want to apply to illegals we would give the bank robbers the rest of the money in the vault as a reward for stealing the money at the tellers' counters.
France Smarter than Bush, Fat Teddy
France says no to mass legalisation of undocumented immigrants
Looks like Sarko is getting down to business.
Maybe the US will take note and get down to business as well.
Man...
I guess it’s time we realize that in terms of illegal immigration, WE are the cheese-eating surrender monkeys.
:-(
Heck if they change their tax structure I might consider moving there now.
Good reason for him to step aside from the issue entirely.
Exactly! This will probably be the biggest mistake of his presidency. I never thought I'd see the day when France gets it and we don't.
I’m neither French or American (I’m Swedish), still I’m convinced The West as a whole would gain a lot from impoved relations between France and The US.
United we stand...
From the website of FAF, French American Foundation:
“The principal challenge in trans-Atlantic relations in the coming decades will be to preserve and enhance the unity of the West in the face of potent disuniting forces. Europe and the United States have been drifting apart ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall. We in the West need to ask ourselves whether we have thus far been wholly worthy of the legacy bequeathed to us by the victors of the Cold War; and what it is we must do to ensure that that legacy is vivid and relevant for successor generations.”
http://www.frenchamerican.org/faf_news_fal05.html
DITTO!
&
Ditto!
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