Spain’s ruling Socialist Labour Party (PSOE) and the Together for Catalonia Party have presented a bill to Parliament that would delegate a range of immigration powers to the Catalan regional government.
The proposal follows a political agreement between the two parties to allow the regional government, known as the ‘Generalitat’, to manage detention centres for foreigners, to expel foreigners banned from entering Spanish territory and to issue punitive administrative measures, including deportation orders.
The agreement also stipulates that Catalonia’s regional police force, Los Mossos, will be involved alongside the national police and the Guardia Civil in the surveillance of crossing points at ports and airports, with 1,800 officers reinforcing the regional police force.
This political agreement gives the Catalan government the power to manage contractual agreements with foreigners from their country of origin.
Foreigners make up more than 18% of the Catalan population and 24% of the region’s residents were born outside Catalonia, which is the reason why ‘the regional government, in collaboration with local institutions, will have to manage this issue’, according to the preamble to the agreement.
