Posted on 06/04/2007 4:54:00 PM PDT by Cincinna
France set tough new quotas for the number of illegal immigrants authorities should arrest and expel each month, the new immigration minister said Monday.
Brice Hortefeux, who heads the newly created Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, said a monthly quota also would be set for ferreting out those employed in France illegally.
In a meeting with security officials, Hortefeux reiterated President Nicolas Sarkozy’s goal of 25,000 expulsions by the end of 2007 - compared with 24,000 in 2006 - and set a year-end goal of 125,000 arrests for alleged illegal entry or illegal residence, a ministry statement said. The number of those already arrested was not immediately clear.
Sarkozy, who was elected May 6, pledged during his campaign to create a ministry of immigration and national identity to rein in the flow of migrants and ensure they are integrated into French society. Riots in French housing projects in 2005 were largely driven by anger among children of immigrants at persistent discrimination and a feeling of alienation from mainstream society.
Hortefeux said the new measures were aimed at "dismantling networks that exploit the misery of illegal immigrants," the statement said.
His orders came after he and Prime Minister Francois Fillon visited a holding center for illegal immigrants Monday _ and three days after the bodies of 18 illegal immigrants were fished from the Mediterranean by the crew of a French frigate.
The dead _ 12 men, two adolescent boys and four women _ were believed to be seeking new lives in Europe, though it was not clear what country they were coming from. They will be buried in France.
"The French Republic will be extremely firm. It will ensure laws are applied," Fillon said, adding: "Naturally, these laws must be applied with the greatest humanity."
Many saw Sarkozy’s proposal as a nod to the electorate on the extreme right, which long has made fighting immigration one of its main causes.
"Generosity is not opening wide the borders without thought for how people will integrate, how they will live, how they will subsist," Fillon said.
Hortefeux, in his meeting with security officials, also insisted on the need to develop a system of paying illegal immigrants to voluntarily return home, setting the number of paid departures at 2,500 for this year _ a 25 percent increase from 2006.
Those volunteering to leave, as part of a program started in late 2005, are given a fixed sum of money, normally $4,700 per couple, with $1,350 each for the first three children.
With the close to 70% majority predicted for UMP in the upcoming Election, more wonderful things will happen in France.
Go Sarko!
Michelle Malkin for Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development???
France, fricking France. Snowmen are breakdancing in Hell.
The only thing I disagree here is with the policy of paying ANY illegal to leave the country. In all fairness, even that’s more understandable than the Bush immigration policy to greatly reward and encourage illegal immigration.
Some Frogs have gotten it.
ML/NJ
Who would have ever thought....I’m so shamed.
70% UMP? wow, Sarkozy will have a pretty free hand to do what he feels he needs to do in France if those numbers hold up.
And kudos for taking some steps to mitigate the inflow into France, IMO, the US should invest in Mexico, specifically things like highways and trains and airports if we can make the Mexican economy grow, there would be much less incentive to jump the border and try and live and work in America.
I feel like I’m living in the Bizarro world;)
Meanwhile John McCain is crying that we’ll have rioting in the streets like France if we try to enforce the laws.
I know what you mean. There is something otherworldly about this. France gets a high five.
Well, Stune My Beeber!
This is a hopeful turn
If we paid them to leave, they would grab up 6 kids, and their live in lover, grab the money, and come back and do it again... it would be better than working..
Who’d believe that France, has more sense than BUSH on this issue?
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Well, France has suffered, and learned, and now France has some CONSERVATIVE leadership that is strong in many respects. Too bad we don’t have that in our government...looks like the self-absorbed voters will have to learn the hard way, along with the pols in Washington.
France is finally opening it’s eyes to the negatives of “uninvited” immigration,I honestly wish we would !!!
I have noticed the MSM still insists on calling it immigration - which it isn't - it's infiltration, and a source of income for unscrupulous people-smugglers, who, having been paid, have no interest in delivering their cargo alive.
I am speechless. France is making greater progress on illegal immigration than the US. Will someone in Congress please take some friggin’ notes!
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