France Races to Oust Illegal Immigrants

[mcscajun]

Sounds like a Republican xenophobe's wet dream, unfortunately. :(
The article describes injuries, some extremely serious, incurred by people fleeing police in the crackdown, protesters protecting illegal aliens and clashing with police, and a growing internal resistance as well as calls from human rights groups.

-snip-

As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year — a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy — tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll.

-snip-

His government is fast-tracking tighter immigration legislation. Parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a bill that would allow consular officers to request DNA samples from immigrants trying to join relatives in France. Even some Cabinet ministers dislike the measure, which critics say betrays France's humanitarian values.

-snip-

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende's new government declared an amnesty for up to 30,000 people. New asylum seekers and illegal immigrants still face a tough regime, kept in camps while their cases are handled. Even legal immigrants must pass language tests before coming and take citizenship classes in order to remain.

-snip-

Even unions representing Air France employees are protesting, saying the flagship carrier's image is suffering because the government uses it to return illegal aliens, sometimes bound hand and foot, on flights occasionally marked by violent incidents.

"It's not our mission to be police auxiliaries," said Leon Cremieux, a national secretary of Sud Aerien, a small union representing employees of the aviation industry. Conditions during some expulsions are "contrary to human rights."

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g99NlCnUgYwBaDv3f3ixCpy5knxQ

[LeftishBrit]

1. Sad...

Xenophobia and immigrant-hatred have been big problems, over the years, in most Europaean countries (including the UK). The origins of the immigrants change with time; the bigotry doesn't. France does have some pockets of extremely ugly bigotry - look at LePen's following there. This was my biggest worry when Sarkozy was elected: not that he'd drag France into Bush's wars (he won't); but that he'd pander to the racists and anti-immigrant bigots, and sadly this seems to be happening.

[Hope springs eternal]

2. Why is immigration a right?

...note he said "Illegal".

[BlooInBloo]

3. Or a DUer's xenophobic wet dream. It's hard to tell the difference.

[Selatius]

4. This is because of the massive urban riots that swept France in 2005

After the riots, people became afraid.

I believe Sarkozy won against Royal because of the fear of immigrants following the riots.

Authoritarians gain the upper hand when they can find something with which to scare people.