France considers five-year jail terms for illegal immigrants with fake ID

French President Emmanuel Macron is proposing tough new immigration and asylum laws, including jail terms of up to five years for illegal immigrants caught using fake identification.

Macron’s proposals also includes plans to double to 90 days the time for which illegal migrants can be detained; cut the deadline for asylum applications to six months; and make the illegal crossing of borders an offence punishable by fines and a year in prison.

French newspaper Liberation describes the plan as a “turn of the screw” that strengthens France’s arsenal to remove the undocumented and reject asylum seekers. The Daily Telegraph says Macron is under pressure to act, with polls showing that the majority of French people think there are too many immigrants in the country.

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The bill is proving highly controversial, however. Le Figaro calls it the “law that divides Camp Macron”, while Reuters says the proposals “will test the unity of his Left-and-Right majority” and have been met with “strident criticism” from human rights groups.

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who drew up the new bill, insisted last month that it is “completely balanced”, and “works on two guiding principles: France must welcome refugees, but it cannot welcome all economic migrants”, the Telegraph reports.

Under the current system, illegal immigrants caught using fake or borrowed IDs to work in France often get a suspended sentence and a request to leave the country, the newspaper adds.