Junts tries again for the Generalitat to assume part of the state competencies in immigration matters. The party spokesperson in Congress, Míriam Nogueras, announced this Wednesday the registration of a new bill that recovers the content of the initiative agreed with the PSOE in 2025, but introduces a change aimed at unlocking its processing: the references that led Podemos to vote against and frustrate its approval almost a year ago.
The movement comes amid the migration crisis in Ceuta and a day after the Government launched the reform of the Immigration and Asylum laws to incorporate tools from the European Migration and Asylum Pact into Spanish legislation. Junts takes advantage of this scenario to recover one of its main claims of the legislature and question whether it should be the central Executive that decides the migration policy applied in Catalonia.
This time there is an important political difference. The PSOE does not sign the proposal. Junts registers it alone, although the content of the dispositive part essentially maintains the agreement that both formations reached in March 2025.
The second attempt after the failure of 2025
The first text was born from an agreement between PSOE and Junts and arrived at Congress as a joint organic law proposal. The chosen formula was the delegation of state competencies constitutionally provided, instead of a definitive transfer of the ownership of those competencies.
The initiative ultimately did not pass the consideration of the Plenary. PP, Vox, Podemos, and UPN voted against it on September 23, 2025, as did two deputies from Sumar who broke the voting discipline. The result was 177 votes against and 173 in favor.
PP and Vox rejected the agreement considering that it invaded exclusive competencies of the State and questioned its constitutional fit. Podemos reached a different conclusion: it accepted that certain competencies could be delegated, but considered the political approach reflected in the text to be "openly racist."
That last obstacle is what Junts is now trying to eliminate.
Junts removes the preamble that Podemos rejected
The new initiative maintains the normative content of the previous proposal, but removes from the preamble the references that Podemos considered discriminatory, according to information known this Wednesday.
Junts thus aims to isolate the debate on the transfer of competencies from the political discourse that accompanied the first text. Nogueras has directly challenged the party of Ione Belarra to decide whether to vote again alongside PP and Vox or to allow this time for the proposal to continue its processing.
Podemos already defended during the parliamentary debate of 2025 that it did not oppose in principle delegating migration competencies to the autonomous communities. Its position was favorable as long as the rights of foreigners were respected and the legislation was equal throughout the territory, but it rejected linking immigration and crime or introducing proposals that it considered xenophobic. This was recorded in the Diario de Sesiones del Congreso.
The unknown is whether the elimination of that content will be enough to change its vote now.
What competencies does Junts claim
The proposal aims for the Generalitat to assume functions that currently correspond to the General Administration of the State.
Among them is the execution of returns of foreigners in Catalonia, within the state regulations, as well as competencies related to immigration documentation, the sanctioning regime, and the management of the centers for the internment of foreigners located in the community. (Cadena SER)
The Mossos d'Esquadra would also gain prominence. The original agreement established their participation in tasks related to borders alongside the Policía Nacional and Guardia Civil and contemplated the incorporation of 1,800 agents to assume the new functions. (Cadena SER)
The model does not imply that Catalonia will independently control an external border of the European Union. The text of 2025 established mechanisms for cooperation with state forces and maintained the application of Spanish and European legislation. (Servimedia)
"Catalonia does not have infinite reception capacity"
Nogueras has accompanied the new registration with a hardening of Junts' discourse on immigration.
The spokesperson argues that the claim for competencies does not respond to a question of "privileges," but of "sovereignty, responsibility, survival, and governance capacity," and defends that Catalonia must have tools to manage the consequences of the decisions made by the central Government.
"Catalonia does not have infinite reception capacity, and it must be said," she stated.
Nogueras has also contrasted the model defended by Junts with the project of the Government of Salvador Illa. In her opinion, Catalonia already has difficulties in attending to a population of eight million inhabitants and advancing towards ten million would put pressure on public services, the welfare state, and the economic situation of the middle and working classes.
She has summarized her proposal in a formula: "Rights, yes. Duties and Catalan identity, too".
At the same time, she has rejected the approaches that reduce migration policy to expelling all foreigners and has called for avoiding both that discourse and that of those who, in her opinion, reject any debate on the obligations of those who arrive in Catalonia.
Junts attacks the Government's regularization
A central part of Nogueras' argument is directed against the migration policy of Pedro Sánchez's Executive.
The spokesperson has particularly criticized the extraordinary regularization process and claims that the volume of applications has far exceeded initial forecasts. According to the figures used by Junts, of the nearly 1.2 million requests submitted, approximately one in four would correspond to people residing in Catalonia.
Junts uses that data to argue that decisions on immigration have a particularly intense impact on the community and that the Generalitat should intervene directly in its management.
Nogueras has contrasted the Government's policy with the direction that, in her opinion, the European Union is taking, with greater control of borders, more effective return procedures, and a closer link between immigration and labor market needs.
The Ceuta crisis brings immigration back to the center of the debate
The new attempt by Junts coincides with the change in policy announced this week by the Government after the Ceuta crisis.
The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday in the first round a new Asylum Law and the reform of the Immigration Law to incorporate instruments provided for in the European Migration and Asylum Pact. Among the proposed measures are new border procedures and mechanisms to expedite the processing of certain requests and returns.
Junts questions whether the Government is now undertaking that reform without having previously resolved the Catalan claim.
The independence movement argues that the problem should not be framed as a conflict between Catalonia and the countries of origin of the migrants. "This is about Catalonia-Spain. This goes back a long way. This is about who decides. And today Madrid decides, and who has to decide is Catalonia," Nogueras has stated.
Podemos has the key again
The parliamentary arithmetic places Podemos back at the center of the operation.
Eleven months ago, their votes were decisive for the proposition agreed upon by PSOE and Junts not even to pass the consideration stage. The result of 177 votes against 173 left the text out of the processing before amendments could be introduced. (EFE Noticias)
Junts is now trying to change that equation by eliminating precisely the content that motivated the rejection from the purples.
It remains to be seen what PSOE will do in the face of an initiative that no longer bears its signature, but whose text reproduces the migration agreement it reached with Junts in 2025. The socialists then defended the constitutionality of the delegation and voted in favor of its processing. (Europa Press)
The proposition thus returns to the starting point almost a year after its parliamentary defeat. This time Junts comes alone and without the preamble that pitted the formation against Podemos. The content of the delegation, however, remains.