Spain: Dangers of Mass Amnesty for Illegal Aliens
Going against historical examples of good judgment, Spain’s government has concluded that the solution to the problem of mass migration is simply to declare a mass amnesty for illegal immigrants. This policy, euphemistically called “regularization,” departs sharply from other European countries like Sweden or neighboring Portugal that are trying to stop mass migration. The ruling PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) narrowly won recent elections and has made amnesty for migrants a top priority despite its narrow control of the government. The plan was approved in the Spanish Parliament and voted in early April to proceed with amnesty.
This is not the first time Spain has looked to grant mass amnesty. In 2005, Spain gave a mass amnesty to 800,000 people following the terrorist attacks in Madrid that killed 191 people and wounded 1,800. Far from stopping illegal immigration, the amnesty simply sent the message that if a person could illegally migrate to Spain and lay low long enough, another round of amnesty would come along, and they could take advantage. Sure enough, this latest round of amnesty has confirmed this is the case. Following the amnesty in 2005, statistics from the European Union’s border agency FRONTEX showed over 55,000 illegal aliens entered Spain in just four years. This number trickled to a few hundred per year following the election of a pro-border-security government in 2011.
Spain is in a precarious migratory position. Mainland Spain is separated from Africa by just 9 miles of sea, an easy distance for smuggling boats to traverse. The Canary Islands and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla on the African mainland offer other opportunities for African migrants to enter Spanish territory and falsely claim asylum. Spain’s government once ordered barbed wire to be removed from fences that separate the enclaves from Morocco, to avoid illegal aliens hurting themselves as they broke into the country. According to FRONTEX, over 16,000 migrants entered Spain via these routes in the first quarter of 2024 alone. There were over 45,000 illegal aliens in 2021 and 2022 combined, the highest since the surge following the announcement of the 2005 amnesty.
Illegal immigration has taken a heavy toll on Spain. The country relies heavily on tourism, and African migrants frequently subsidize their welfare payments with (illegal) street vending, becoming violent and falsely accusing Spanish police of ‘racism’ when they are arrested for not having permits. Furthermore, there have been violent attacks on Spanish people by migrants. In February 2024, a Moroccan migrant who was “known to the police” rampaged through a subway station in Barcelona, punching multiple women in what is believed to have been an unprovoked attack. In 2021, a woman was gang raped by four migrants on Spain’s Canary Islands after stopping to ask them about their plight as migrants.
Migrants have also begun to squat in private houses. Once there, it is difficult to remove them given that Spanish law typically favors migrants and squatters over law-abiding citizens and homeowners. Many gangs conduct “ransom squatting”, where a home is occupied and the migrants offer to leave in exchange for a payment. Knowing that the Spanish court system is so slow, it often works out cheaper for a homeowner to pay migrants to leave than to wait for court decisions. This has seen the rise of private security firms which remove migrants in more forceful ways, suggesting that Spanish people are losing faith in the police and courts to protect them. Vigilante groups have been reported in some Spanish resort towns, which seems to support this worrying theory.
This matters to America for several reasons. The problems of mass migration are increasingly similar across the Western world. As in Spain, Americans are facing the threat of migrant squatters stealing their homes, with minimal legal options to stop them. As in Spain, amnesties, and even the prospect of them, have been shown to drive more waves of migration. Like Spain, illegal immigrants in America have falsely accused American authorities of ‘racism’ when their demands are not met. And like Spain, ordinary Americans are beginning to despair and lose faith in the authorities. Ordinary Spaniards and Americans alike can learn from the example of past failed amnesties and demand greater security.