PP, Vox and CEOE explode against the Government for facilitating the regularization of foreign prisoners

This Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior has sent an instruction to Spanish penitentiary centers to facilitate access for foreign inmates to the extraordinary regularization process provided for in Royal Decree 316/2026. According to the measure, prisons must inform inmates, designate reference personnel, register applications, and facilitate documentary processing, even if it is incomplete. A measure that is in line with Sumar, who recently claimed -as Demócrata already reported- that preventive detainees can benefit from regularization as they do not have a final sentence.

It is estimated that foreign prisoners represent more than 30% of the prison population, exceeding 15,000 people.

In this context, political formations such as PP and Vox have reacted, surprised that the process of massive regularization enters the prisons of Spain so that foreign prisoners are informed of the measure, and at the same time the process is facilitated for them, even with translators, if necessary. 

What about criminal records?

For the deputy secretary of Sectorial Coordination of the PP, Alma Ezcurra, it is “very serious” that the General Secretariat of Penitentiary Institutions has ordered prisons to inform foreign inmates about the extraordinary regularization process, as well as to prepare a statistical record of applicants among the prison population, deliver the documentation “as soon as possible” and offer linguistic support when necessary.

According to the communication from the General Directorate of Penal Execution and Social Reintegration, an agency dependent on the Ministry of the Interior, advanced by El Español and to which Europa Press has had access, it is ordered that "adequate information be guaranteed to the foreign inmate population and, where appropriate, facilitate a copy of the documentation that may be on file with the prison administration."

“If this is true, it is very serious and the Government must explain it immediately,” the 'popular' leader has written on her X account. For its part, Interior sources have indicated to Europa Press that their action has been limited to “informing the foreign internal population of the existence of the new Royal Decree, by disseminating a copy of it on the notice boards of the different departments, library, schools”.

Ezcurra, in any case, has stressed that the regularization decree requires in its provisions 20 and 21 to lack a criminal record. In this regard, he points out that this means that the only inmates who could benefit are those in preventive detention and points out that a preventive detainee is one whom a judge has sent to jail due to risk of flight, destruction of evidence, or recidivism (art. 503 of the Criminal Procedure Law). That is, as he insists, someone suspected of a serious crime.

Along the same lines, he emphasizes that, on the other hand, the decree "expressly" states that police records, although they do not exclude regularization, something he qualifies as "a big deal" in colloquial language, will serve the Administration to expressly assess the risk to public order. In his opinion, "it is not far-fetched" to think that someone who is in preventive detention is."

Complaints to Brussels and the Supreme Court

Vox, for its part, has been forceful in condemning that the Government of Spain regularizes foreign inmates while Europe hardens its borders. Hence, the party led by Santiago Abascal has decided to report to Brussels and the Supreme Court that Sánchez's Government evades the Eurodac Regulation.

In the same weeks that Germany is reinforcing controls on its internal borders, France is debating the accelerated expulsion of foreigners with criminal records, Italy is intensifying return agreements with third countries, and the European Parliament is approving the Returns Regulation -points out Vox-, "the government of Pedro Sánchez has approved the extraordinary regularization of nearly half a million irregular immigrants through Royal Decree 316/2026. A measure -it insists-, which has already collapsed immigration offices throughout Spain, and which now takes a further step, with the Ministry of the Interior ordering penitentiary centers to actively facilitate the regularization process for foreign prisoners,

According to the information published by El Español, the General Directorate of Penal Execution and Social Reintegration has sent an instruction to all penitentiary centers obliging them to: inform foreign inmates of the existence of the decree through notice boards, libraries, and center schools; designate a reference professional to accompany each inmate in the process; prepare a statistical record of applicants and note each application in the inmate's personal file; provide documentation "as soon as possible" and offer linguistic support, admitting applications even if the documentation is incomplete.

The "hole" in the Eurodac Regulation

For MEP Jorge Buxadé, head of the Vox Delegation in the European Parliament, the central problem is not only political but legal and security for the entire Schengen area. The decree bypasses the Eurodac Regulation -which obliges to cross the criminal databases of all Member States before granting any legal status- by entering into force immediately, without allowing time for this screening. The result is that an inmate with no criminal record in Spain but with convictions in Germany, France or Italy can obtain Spanish legal documentation and move freely within the Schengen area. "The filter is non-existent - Vox reiterates - because we are putting the security of the entire European Union at risk," Buxadé has warned.

Last April 17, Vox filed before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court an appeal against Royal Decree 316/2026, requesting its provisional suspension. The high court admitted it for processing and, in less than 48 hours, appointed magistrate José Luis Quesada Varea as rapporteur, requiring the Government to deliver the complete administrative file within a non-extendable period of 20 days. The appeal alleges that the norm exceeds the limits of a royal decree - a matter that would require an organic law -, and that it "will cause irreversible damages such as the alteration of the electoral roll or the collapse of public services".

CEOE asks the Government to sit down to talk about employment and training

Also this Tuesday, and, in a meeting with journalists during his participation in an informative breakfast of ‘Nueva Economía Fórum’, held alongside the president of Cepyme, Ángela de Miguel, Antonio Garamendi, president of the employers' association CEOE, has defended a migratory policy "very oriented towards employment", linked to training pathways that facilitate regularized individuals effectively accessing the labor market.

"And that sincerely, for the moment -emphasized the president of the main Spanish business organization-, well it is not on the table and we think it is urgent to sit down to see what the path to employment is and what training plans are necessary to cover so many vacancies that exist in Spain. I believe that it is also the way to give quality of life to people," he defended.

The business leader has denounced the current administrative "collapse" in the processing of regularizations and has focused on the relevance of criminal record certificates. "We are going to admit all the good people, but it must be very clear that we do not let in people who should not be here", he added.

Garamendi has pointed out that, despite supporting the process, he misses that it has not been articulated through a State pact nor has it been debated in Parliament, and has censured that this matter is resorted to "as an electoral campaign at all times, in each case, by one party, by another".

"I believe that this should have been better managed and should also be a State pact. That said, we agree that people have to come, we agree that people must be integrated. Spain can be a good host country, but there are a series of approaches that must be put on the table," he stressed.

"Criminal records are an obstacle"

The doctor in Law, Elena Ramallo, has explained for Demócrata that Spain starts from the Law of Foreigners (regularization) – Organic Law 4/2000, whose key requirement is to have no criminal record in Spain and, where applicable, in the country of origin.

The existence of a criminal record - Ramallo points out - prevents or severely hinders the granting. Furthermore, there are other requirements (roots, contract, integration), which are also difficult to prove in prison, not to mention another requirement: "good civic conduct".

So, current or uncancelled criminal records imply denial. "And, while it is true that the processing can be started from prison, because it is not necessary to leave to submit the file -she explains-, the usual result is denial as long as there are records and a sentence is being served." In summary -states Elena Ramallo-, "criminal records are a determining obstacle for regularization and nationality and, real viability usually occurs after serving the sentence and cancelling records. But -she points out-, no country would logically grant neither regularization nor even nationality."

Sumar asks administrations to stop "hindering"

On the other hand, the spokesperson for Sumar in Congress, Verónica Martínez Barbero, has asked this Tuesday "all competent administrations", including the Government, to "stop hindering" and put "all the means" at their disposal to facilitate the regularization of migrants.

So expressed it the spokesperson for Sumar in a press conference in the Lower House, when asked about the queues registered on the first day to submit the application in person, which began this Monday.

Martínez Barbero has stated that "there is a rule that clearly states the requirements to be able to regularize" in Spain and "they are very broad." Furthermore, he has indicated that it is "a generous regularization, strict, of course, in its terms, but very generous."