The Joint National Security Commission, which brings together Congress and Senate, has given the green light this Tuesday to an initiative of the Popular Party to create a working group formed by deputies and senators with the aim of examining how the extraordinary regularization process for migrants launched by the Government may affect national security.
The PP's proposal has prospered thanks to the support of PP and VOX, who have an absolute majority in this body, against the rejection of PSOE, ERC and EH Bildu.
The objective of the PP is that this parliamentary committee carry out a specific study, within the framework of the National Security policy, on the extraordinary regularization procedure of foreign persons initiated by the Executive.
"A committee to supervise, analyze and study the entire process, as well as, where appropriate, demand accountability," detailed the PP deputy Rafael Hernando during the debate of the proposal in the Mixed Commission.
The Council of Ministers agreed last January 27 to activate the urgent processing to extraordinarily regularize more than half a million immigrants, by virtue of an agreement between PSOE and Podemos. The draft royal decree introduces changes to the Regulation of the Organic Law on the rights and freedoms of foreign persons in Spain.
The text recovers the proposal of the Popular Legislative Initiative (PLI) backed by more than 700,000 signatures and admitted for processing in Congress in 2004 with the support of all groups, except Vox, but which had remained paralyzed since then.
Hernando has criticized that the regularization process approved by the Government, "besides illegal, due to the way it has been carried out urgently with a decree, is reckless because it puts national security and that of the entire European Union at risk".
"In January, through a decree-law, the Government, unexpectedly and to cover up its corruption cases in the midst of the electoral campaign, pushed through a decree-law unilaterally, opening a process of massive regularization for irregular immigrants without any kind of guarantees", he/she/it added.
Spain as a "sieve" and criticism of migration policy
SPAIN, "A SIEVE"
Furthermore, he has accused the Executive that "the Government has turned Spain into a sieve", into "the paradise where mafias trafficking in people have made their August" and has warned that "in the midst of that, any criminal or terrorist who intends to enter Spain or Europe, will be able to do so".
In the same vein, VOX deputy Alberto Asarta has maintained that national security "is being questioned by an erratic, improvised, and deeply irresponsible migratory policy." "The Government presided over by Pedro Sánchez has opted for a path that not only does not solve the problem, but aggravates it," he criticized.
"Every decision of mass regularization sends a clear message: Entering Spain illegally ends up having a reward. This is not solidarity, this is irresponsibility. That is why we support the creation of a specific report," has pointed out.
Response of the PSOE and of the nationalist groups
For his part, the PSOE deputy Javier Ruiz de Diego has expressed his "surprise" because the PP is now promoting this initiative and did not do so in previous extraordinary regularization processes approved under governments of the PP itself.
"Why now and not in previous regularization processes? Why now and not in the year 2000 when President Aznar regularized 265,000 people? Why now and not in the year 2001 when President Aznar regularized 240,000 people? What is the difference between one process and the other?", he questioned.
LACKING A CRIMINAL RECORD, "ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENT"
Likewise, he has defended the decree approved by the Government for the extraordinary regularization of migrants, has specified that one of "the indispensable requirements is to lack a criminal record" and has maintained that regularization "cuts off the business" of mafias.
Meanwhile, the ERC senator Jordi Gaseni has described as "sad" the speeches by PP and VOX which, in his opinion, "ooze racism, discourse of fear". Although he has considered "positive" the extraordinary regularization, he has also criticized the European Pact on Migration and Asylum. "It is a shame for a Government that presents itself to the world as a beacon of tolerance and acceptance of diversity", he has stated.
In turn, EH Bildu deputy Jon Iñarritu has branded the PP's proposal as "Martian" and "clearly xenophobic", which "speaks of networks, of flows, of trafficking, when not of terrorism, and pointing out that this regularization will be terrible for the security of Spaniards".
Warnings from the PP on the EU and security
In an appearance in Congress, the PP spokesperson, Ester Muñoz, has defended the creation of the committee and has insisted that with it her party intends "that the consequences that a process of massive regularization that renounces minimum security guarantees may have for Spain and for the European Union be analyzed."
Muñoz has accused the Executive that the Government "is determined to carry out that regularization, despite it being against the absolute majority of this Parliament, without controls, and just the opposite of what the European Union's Asylum and Immigration Pact is demanding."
It has also warned that the Government "will miss the deadline" of June to adapt Spanish legislation to the EU Asylum and Immigration Pact and has indicated that the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner, has warned Spain that regularized immigrants will not be able to settle in the EU, although they will be able to move freely around the continent upon obtaining legal residency.
"A HOLE FOR THE SECURITY"
"Spain will be a hole for security, not only of our country, but also of the European Union, because criminals who circulate throughout the European Union will be able to sneak in through Spain," Muñoz has assured.
Furthermore, he has recalled that the National Strategy against Terrorism, published in the BOE on May 8, 2024, warns of the connections between jihadists and human trafficking networks in the central Mediterranean and of the risk of terrorists entering Europe. "When the Government of Spain says this, it is security. When the Popular Party warns of this type of situation, we are racists," he has reproached.
At the same time, he has accused the Executive of "opacity" in relation to the nationalizations processed under the Democratic Memory Law, whose three-year term concluded in October, and has indicated that the PP has registered up to five questions about how many people have accessed nationality through this route without obtaining a response, since the Government alleges that the civil registries have not been digitized until May-June 2025. "I don't know what's worse, if they have absolute disarray and don't know how many or if they are pulling our leg," he concluded.