Immigration: theme of the electoral campaign and now a new delegation to the Paris police headquarters (PP).
The creation of this post, formalized by decree on May 1, was part of the White Paper on Homeland Security.
"I hope that the reform begun in the fight against irregular immigration will be carried out quickly, with in particular the creation of a prefect delegated to immigration", declared Gérald Darmanin in Le Parisien last November.
Ile-de-France concentrates 50% of asylum requests in France, 40% of the issuance of the first residence permits and 30% of the fight against illegal immigration, recalls the PP. Julien Marion, director of the general police within the PP since 2017, knows the file well. This enarque, lover of lyrical art, who alternated ministerial posts in the Interior (2004-2007), Health and Sports (2007-2010) and prefectural, who did not wish to speak publicly, is preceded by a good reputation.
"He is reliable, technical, fast, with intelligence in the management of situations, and sympathetic", says of him Marie-Emmanuelle Assidon, his colleague prefect of the defense zone.
"He is clever enough not to aim the big beasts of the prefectural!"
», Indicates another Ile-de-France source.
"With him, we can discuss," said Frédéric Guillo, secretary general of the CGT at the PP, for whom "better harmonization" between the departments is a necessity.
Irregular immigration: a new CRA
The fight against irregular immigration is one of the priorities displayed, even if, we are assured on the side of the PP, "no quantified objective" has been assigned. A new administrative detention center (CRA) should open in Seine-et-Marne by 2023-2024. These sixty places will be added to the 541 currently spread over Paris, Mesnil-Amelot (Seine-et-Marne), Plaisir (Yvelines) and Palaiseau (Essonne). Administrative detention facilities (LRA), as there are in Val-de-Marne, where detention cannot exceed 48 hours (compared to 90 days in CRA), must also open in Bobigny (Seine-Saint-Denis), before summer, and in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), next year. A third project, not yet validated, is envisaged in the Val-d'Oise.
In fact, the management of the detention of people in an irregular situation in France is already regionalized in Ile-de-France.
Since 2018, all placement requests have been processed by the so-called zonal coordination unit (three agents), within the immigration service.
This unit receives requests from the eight departments of Ile-de-France and distributes it according to the places available and the prospects of remoteness.
"With this system, at constant means, the rate of removal from the CRAs has gone from 40 to 60% before the Covid", underlines the PP.
National distribution of asylum applications
At the asylum level too, management will continue with a national distribution key. If the service in charge of asylum at the PP has seen its staff triple since 2016, from "from 30 to more than 90 agents", there is no question for Ile-de-France to absorb the half of the applications filed nationwide. In 2019, 44,500 asylum seekers applied there. The national distribution key is intended to last. Thus out of 3000 requests recorded per month in Ile-de-France, more than a third (between 1000 and 1300) applicants are redirected elsewhere in France. Accommodation and an allowance (varying from 204 to 406 euros) are offered while their file is being investigated. In case of refusal to go to the region indicated, the applicant loses the benefit of accommodation and allowance.
Difficult to know more about the guideline concerning the management of migrant camps.
On Friday, associations announced that they had filed a complaint against Didier Lallement, prefect of police, Marc Guillaume, prefect of Ile-de-France, and Georges-François Leclerc, prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, following the dismantling of camps in Saint -Denis and Place de la République.
"Operations, there are every week in Paris, almost all of you never hear about them, they take place in a serene way", reacted last week a prefectural source.
As for the sheltering of migrants, they will not fall under the mission of the new prefect delegated to immigration, but remain within the competence of the prefect of the Ile-de-France region.
For residence permits, the prefectures keep control
The harmonization of the management of residence permit applications, with simplified access to appointments, is a strong expectation among the ranks of applicants for regularization and their supporters. Hundreds of appeals are filed in the administrative courts of Ile de France, including a hundred per month in Paris, for the obtaining of a simple appointment, with convictions to the key for the prefectures.
No revolution in sight in this area.
The new prefect delegated to immigration must ensure that there is "not too much discrepancy" but does not take control of the organization of each prefecture.
The PP will make new tools available, but will not impose.
Among them, a “Chatbot” (interactive assistant on the prefecture's website), before the summer, “Facebook live” and a single email address for all requests relating to the foreigners' service.
An artificial intelligence system should redirect emails to the right services.
Read also Residence permits: "Dematerialization has plunged many foreigners into precariousness"
The kiosk near the forecourt of Notre-Dame should also be transformed into an orientation kiosk for requests relating to the stay. One way to reduce the number of visits to the counter in the walls of the PP, where 50,000 users pass each month. "What will really change things is the Anef, not the delegation", notes an observer about "the digital administration for foreigners in France". The tool, put in place for student titles since September, aims to dematerialize all the procedures, in 2022 at the earliest. Associations for the defense of foreigners have already planned to request a hearing from the new prefect Marion.
