Spain's Amnesty for Illegals Grows: 3 Million Migrants

It started with an estimate that around half a million illegal immigrants would be covered by the mass amnesty proposed by Spain’s socialist government. Shortly thereafter, the figure was revised to well over a million. Now, senior officials within the Spanish police are warning that the real number could be significantly higher. According to their assessment, around three million people could gain legal status in Spain through the amnesty and subsequent family reunifications — which, in the long run, would also grant them the opportunity to travel freely within the EU’s Schengen area.

The police chiefs argue that each person who is legalized could, in practice, mean several more family members are able to move to Spain. They therefore warn that the number of people affected by the reform could become much higher than the government’s original calculations.

The police’s own estimate assumes that about 1.2 million illegal immigrants will obtain residence permits through the government’s amnesty. When a large portion of these are then expected to apply for family reunification, the number of people affected by the reform increases dramatically.

According to the police, the total figure could therefore reach several million migrants. This is reported by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.

“For every person who gains legal status, at least three more are added if a family reunification application is made and granted,” a border police source told the newspaper.

Migration Authorities Gain the Power

At the same time, police leadership is sharply critical of the socialist government’s management of the idea of a large-scale amnesty. According to them, responsibility has in practice been shifted from the police to the migration authorities, which they believe risks weakening the checks of identity documents and criminal records.

The role of the police is said to be mainly limited to administrative duties and issuing documents already approved by the migration authorities, even though it is traditionally the police who are responsible for identity and security checks.

The police officers interviewed by El Mundo also question whether the staff handling the applications have sufficient training and experience to carry out controls in a legally secure way.

Another concern is the potential for fraud in connection with family immigration. According to the police, there is a risk that organized criminal networks will try to exploit the system by helping people falsely claim to be relatives of those who have already been granted legal status.

The police state that attempts at this type of fraud are already occurring, even though many cases are detected through checks and investigations.

Police Have Warned

The central department of the Spanish police for immigration and border matters expressed doubts about the project already before the reform took effect. In an internal report, the government’s description of the reform as an urgent social measure was questioned.

The report highlighted several possible consequences of a large-scale amnesty, including increased irregular migration, greater strain on healthcare, schools, and social services, as well as risks of social tensions and declining trust in the country’s border controls.

According to police information, the authorities have discovered a large number of attempts to submit incorrect or incomplete information during the application process. This led immigration units to issue internal warnings to alert caseworkers to suspected fraud attempts.