Over in France—enlightened, cosmopolitan, welcoming France; the country most American liberals wish we were more like—President Emmanuel Macron made the following announcement earlier this week:
Migrants who cross the Alps from Italy to France face a year in jail under a tough new law announced by President Macron’s government yesterday.
The bill, which is designed to curb illegal immigration, makes it a criminal offence to enter France without going through one of the country’s 404 official border points. The maximum sentence for “unauthorised crossing” of a border will be a year in prison and a fine of €3,750. . .
Among the measures announced by Gérard Collomb, the interior minister, is the creation of a five-year jail sentence for migrants who use forged identity papers to stay and to work in France. He also wants to extend from 45 days to 135 days the period during which illegal immigrants can be detained while officials are organising their expulsion from France. Mr Collomb said that the 45-day period was pointless because it meant that most had to be released before they could be sent back to their countries of origin.
Under the new rules police will be able to hold people they suspect of being illegal immigrants for 24 hours while checking their status. At present they have to free them after 16 hours.
Mr Collomb says that the French asylum system is broken, because the vast majority of migrants who have been refused refugee status stay in France anyway.
I say Republicans should just propose that we copy French immigration enforcement, and sit back and watch the fun. Actually, we don’t have to guess. The French left appears to be taking talking points from our Democrats:
Benoît Hamon, the former Socialist presidential election candidate, said that Mr Macron had implemented the toughest migration policy France had seen since the Vichy regime collaborated with the Nazis during the Second World War. “It is a scandal,” he said.
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