Hundreds of people demonstrate to demand the repeal of the immigration law

Collectives of undocumented immigrants and unions have called for demonstrations against the text, promulgated after having been widely censored by the Constitutional Council.

They denounce a text “xenophobic”. Hundreds of people demonstrated in Paris on Saturday February 3 to demand the repeal of the immigration law. “Immigration, Darmanin will not lay down the law”, “racism, colonialism, fascism, we don’t want that society”could we read on the signs of the procession, which left from Place de la République to reach Place Gambetta, at the call of collectives of undocumented immigrants and unions.

At the end of January, the Constitutional Council had largely censored the bill, in particular the articles providing for a tightening of the conditions of access to family reunification and social benefits. Emmanuel Macron subsequently promulgated the law. “We are happy that the Constitutional Council has sanctioned a certain number of measures, but it is the law as a whole which seems bad to us, so we are asking for its overall withdrawal”Emmanuelle Jollet, co-responsible for FSU Ile-de-France, told AFP. “We are not giving up, because it is a fundamental question of values.”

“We are not thugs”

“We have been fighting for a year against this racist and xenophobic law, we will continue to denounce and fight it”added Cybèle David, national secretary of the Solidaires union. “What worries us most is the question of repression and criminalization of foreigners who are, through this law, perceived as a so-called danger”she added. “Foreign people who live in the territory participate in social and economic life and contribute enormously to our society.” For Mariama Sidibe, spokesperson for the Coordination of Undocumented Migrants (CSP) 75, “we ask for humanity, we ask for our rights, we are workers, we are workers, we are not thugs, nor terrorists”.