The Supreme Court (TS) has decided not to provisionally suspend the extraordinary regularization of migrants approved by the Government on April 14, a measure whose suspension had been requested by Hazte Oír, Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth, Libertad y Justicia, Vox, and the Community of Madrid.
As the high court itself has communicated, the Contentious-Administrative Chamber adopted its resolution this Friday after a deliberation of more than three hours, in which it heard the arguments of the appellant parties and the State Attorney's Office, representing the Executive.
In relation to Hazte Oír, Association for Reconciliation and Historical Truth, and Libertad y Justicia, the Supreme Court has dismissed their appeals "for lack of active standing," so their requests were not analyzed on their merits.
On the other hand, the Chamber has recognized the active standing of Vox and the Community of Madrid, but has rejected their request for provisional suspension of the royal decree regulating the regularization process. The court has announced that the orders with the details of the decision will be notified in the coming days.
Hazte Oír has stated to Europa Press that they will challenge the Chamber's resolution, both regarding the "lack of active standing" found by the Supreme Court and concerning the refusal to adopt the precautionary measure, which they consider unjustified given the, in their opinion, "serious risk" of not provisionally halting the extraordinary regularization.
The State Attorney's Office opposes the provisional suspension
During the hearing, the State Attorney's Office argued that "the requirements are not met" to agree to the suspension of the regularization, emphasizing that halting the procedure would imply a "direct impact on the rights of the foreign individuals concerned and, therefore, on the general interest." Likewise, it stressed that, "in no case" will individuals who avail themselves of this process be able to participate in the upcoming electoral events.
For its part, Vox's lawyer reiterated before the Supreme Court its request for provisional suspension of the decree, warning that the measure could alter the political, electoral, and administrative balance of the country due to the volume of immigrants who could obtain legal residence permits.
The legal representative of Hazte Oír also insisted on the need to suspend the royal decree of regularization, to which he attributed an absence of legal guarantees, "none". In his opinion, the norm would violate the Foreigners Law because, as he explained, it does not ensure adequate control of the criminal records of the applicants.
After the hearing, the lawyer for Hazte Oír stated to the media that he is confident in a final resolution favorable to his arguments and that the royal decree will eventually be revoked.
More than 549,000 applications in the process
In the same session, the State lawyer reported that 549,596 applications from migrants have already been registered within the extraordinary regularization procedure initiated on April 16 and which will remain open until June 30.
This process is the outcome of years of political and social discussion and is based on a Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) promoted by social entities, human rights organizations, and citizen platforms, which called for an extraordinary regularization for foreign individuals already living in Spain. That ILP obtained broad initial support in Congress, although its processing was delayed until it resulted in the mechanism finally approved by the Executive.
The Government has reiterated before the Supreme Court that the precautionary suspension of the procedure it has initiated would imply a "direct impact on the rights of the interested foreign persons and, therefore, on the general interest".
"There is a direct impact on the rights of the interested foreign persons and, therefore, on the general interest, since these persons would be left in a legal vacuum while awaiting the resolution of the appeal filed," explained the State Attorney's Office in a document submitted on behalf of the Ministry of the Presidency, Justice and Relations with the Courts, which Europa Press had access to.