The deployment comes after a foreign national was beaten to death by a mob during an anti-immigrant protest last week.

© Rajesh Jantilal/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Reports of an uptick in operations, alongside a push to root out alleged noncitizen voting, have unnerved immigrant communities ahead of next week’s election.

© Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times

Immigrant advocates called the agreement “collusion” and had asked the justices to reinstate a Biden-era policy that gave immigration judges discretion.

© Tierney L. Cross for The New York Times

The parents of the Minneapolis nurse who was fatally shot by federal agents in January said on Tuesday that the government had ignored and misled them.

© Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times

State and local plans for Election Day include how to react to potential ICE raids, misbehavior by federal election monitors and attempts to seize votes or machines.

© John Locher/Associated Press

How a rebuilt, historic California baseball diamond embodies ‘the contradictions in America’s legacy’

When Dan Kwong first dreamed of staging baseball games at the Japanese American concentration camp where his family was held captive during the second world war, he thought of it as an exercise in living history, an eye-catching way to convey the trauma of 120,000 men, women and children who were locked up in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Baseball was a passion for Kwong, a 71-year-old performance artist from Los Angeles. He knew that the wartime internees had played the game not just as a distraction from their predicament, but as a quiet expression of their loyalty to the United States. He wanted to stage an event that would cast the game as an act of resistance, and teach new generations about the damage governments do when they strip a whole segment of the population of their constitutional rights.

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© Photograph: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Death inside Folkston facility comes as officials allegedly threaten hunger strikers there with force-feeding

An immigrant detained at a sprawling detention center complex in Georgia died on Friday, local and federal officials confirmed, after the facility has already faced national scrutiny for its response to an ongoing hunger strike inside.

The death inside the D Ray James facility in Folkston, Georgia, comes as federal immigration officials and private contractors are allegedly threatening hunger strikers there with force-feeding, a detained hunger striker, his wife, attorneys and advocates all said this week. Detainees are refusing food to protest prolonged captivity and bad conditions.

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© Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

© Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

© Photograph: Erik S Lesser/EPA

With moves in Alaska and California, the department has stepped up interventions in the midterm elections as the president’s instrument of unmediated executive power.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

The ruling, from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, sharply curtails the ability of judges to free undocumented immigrants.

© Shelby Tauber for The New York Times

CBP commissioner Rodney Scott says $46bn Texas project is justified amid court-ordered pause on wall’s construction

The Trump administration’s top border official defended plans to build a wall and other infrastructure in the Big Bend of Texas despite mounting opposition against the project and a court-ordered pause on construction, saying his goal of fortifying the country’s borders was “non-negotiable”.

Rodney Scott, the commissioner of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), said the $46bn wall project was justified despite a bipartisan coalition of landowners, local businesses and environmentalists who view it as a waste of taxpayer money that could be destructive to a region with historically low migrant crossings, in an exclusive interview with the Associated Press.

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© Photograph: John Locher/AP

© Photograph: John Locher/AP

© Photograph: John Locher/AP

The Justice Department sought to jump-start a lawsuit aimed at compelling the state to not count as many as 20,000 mail ballots it claims were sent to noncitizens.

© Isadora Kosofsky for The New York Times

Federal judge says government’s investigation into alleged noncitizen voting in nine states is relying on flawed data

A federal judge in California has ordered the Trump administration to halt investigations in nine states into whether noncitizens are registered to vote.

US district court judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín in Oakland found the government’s effort was relying on data that is full of errors and that it was leading to intimidation of groups performing voter assistance efforts. She said it should be halted until polls close on election day on 3 November.

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© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

© Photograph: Jae C Hong/AP

The Pentagon’s Active Denial System shoots energy beam that causes ‘sensation of intense heat on surface of skin’

Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defense, reportedly signed a memo last month permitting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to test a non-lethal “heat ray” for potential use at the US southern border.

The “heat ray”, known as the Active Denial System, is a military-grade weapon that shoots an energy beam causing “a sensation of intense heat on the surface of the skin”, according to a 2009 National Defense University case study on the weapon.

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© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1

© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1

© Photograph: Cpl. Andrew Huff/Marine Aviation Weapons and Tactics Squadron-1

Thousands of people are training to be poll observers to look out for any interference or ICE presence on election day

• Our reporters answer your questions about ICE, immigration and the midterms

Stevie Lyn is angry at what she’s seen in her Phoenix, Arizona, neighborhood over the past year. Since US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) began conducting raids all across the city, her Latino neighbors on the west side have had to hide in their homes, too scared to grocery shop, work and vote. That’s why she volunteered to become a poll observer.

“I had to take the anger, because it was eating me alive, and direct it towards a constructive activity,” she said.

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© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/AFP/Getty Images

The ruling largely blocked homeland security agents from carrying out field interviews in nine states, including California, as part of a sprawling effort to find noncitizens registered to vote.

© Philip Cheung for The New York Times

With ICE arrests and detentions at their highest levels, immigration remains a key issue for voters less than two weeks before election day.

• From mass raids to quiet crackdown: a timeline of Trump’s strategic ICE pivot

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Cheryl Bath, Wisconsin asks in a callout question: During covid I was surprised to learn how many foreign workers, especially from Mexico, worked in the Wisconsin farm fields. And now, I was more surprised to learn that these workers would also be deported and not allowed to work any longer at these fields even though it was all legal with paperwork. These foreign workers paid into the federal government taxes and social security system which was a plus for U.S. social security. I’ve been wondering how these Wisconsin farms are dealing with the absence of these workers seeing how it is harvesting time right now. Propublica had a article a year or so ago about the effects of this immigration sweep on the workers and the farms but that was still when the workers were still here. I can’t find any follow up or information on this anywhere. I think the farmers really feel left out to deal with this on their own and no one is asking questions. Maybe you can?

Maanvi: Cattle ranchers and dairy farmers have indeed been pushing for immigration reform, not only recently, but for years – because the industry relies so heavily on immigrant labor. In September, the the Texas Cattle Feeders Association, Kansas Livestock Association, and Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association issued a joint warning that ICE operations were threatening their industy, and would have “a massive chilling effect on the legal, documented, skilled workers that put beef on the table and keep the supply chain moving”. I recently spoke with Matt Teagarden, CEO of the Kansas Livestock Association, who said that the US cattle herd has shrunk to its lowest numbers in 75 years – and ranchers are struggling to keep up with consumer demand. Farms aren’t able to expand operations without immigrant labor – and Teagarden said that this could mean that US consumers will increasingly be eating imported beef. He also noticed that ICE crackdowns are having a systemic impact on agriculture – it’s not only dairy or cattle industry workers who are impacted, but also farmworkers who grow the feed for cows, and immigrant workers who process the dairy and meat before it gets to grocery stores. Two-thirds of farm workers are non-citizen immigrants. As the administration targets these workers, food producers could struggle to keep up operations, and prices are expected to increase steeply, according to a study by the thinktank Fwd.us.

José: Many people caught up in the Trump administration’s dragnet are workers in the US — they pay taxes and contribute to Social Security, while receiving almost none of the benefits. The process to gain asylum or remain in the US can be long and arduous — oftentimes, as undocumented people go through the process, they will receive work permits, Social Security numbers and, in certain states, driver’s licenses. Now, many people with those legal work permits have been arrested by federal immigration officials and sit in detention centers, waiting for their immigration cases to proceed.

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© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

A lower court judge had halted the administration’s plan to erect hundreds of miles of barriers in the Big Bend region of Texas.

© Ronaldo Schemidt/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Flights to third countries where the detainees have no ties are scheduled as early as Wednesday, relatives detail

• Send us your questions about immigration and the midterms

Relatives of gravely ill detainees at two Florida immigration jails say authorities are about to deport their loved ones to unknown countries in Africa despite worsening medical conditions.

Flights are scheduled as early as Wednesday, according to the families and the immigration advocacy group the Workers Circle, which has been monitoring conditions and speaking with detainees inside two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities in south Florida.

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© Photograph: Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via Getty Images

© Photograph: Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via Getty Images

© Photograph: Pedro Portal/Miami Herald via Getty Images

Lebanese officials were furious, claiming the city erased Gibran’s identity. Yet there was a time when Arab immigrants in the US thought ‘we were all Syrians’

• This is Muslim New York: artists, thinkers and politicos on defining a new era for the city

On the morning of 30 April, in the shadow of the financial district’s skyscrapers, a gold cloth slid off a bright yellow sculpture of painted stainless steel, 7ft (2 metres) tall, that spells an Arabic word: “al Qalam”, the pen.

The monument, Al Qalam: Poets in the Park, stands in Elizabeth H Berger Plaza and honors the writers of the vanished neighborhood that New Yorkers once called Little Syria: an Arabic-speaking immigrant community that ran along Washington Street, blocks from where the World Trade Center would later rise. The monument was the first commemorative artwork unveiled under Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Little Syria produced one of the most famous poets ever to live in New York: Kahlil Gibran, author of The Prophet, a book of poetic prose that has never gone out of print. The monument honors the Pen League, the circle of writers Gibran led in Little Syria in the early 20th century.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of the Washington Street Historical Society

© Photograph: Courtesy of the Washington Street Historical Society

© Photograph: Courtesy of the Washington Street Historical Society

The statement revealed in court papers raises questions about the reliability of the list of 20,000 people in California

The justice department’s list of suspected non-citizens in California includes a “high percentage” of people born in the United States, Los Angeles election officials said on Tuesday.

The statement, made in court papers, raises further questions about the reliability of a list of 20,000 people the justice department provided to election officials in Los Angeles last week. The department sent the county and California secretary of state the list last week and gave them a 48-hour deadline to segregate ballots cast from anyone on the list unless they could verify their citizenship. California election officials refused and the Department of Justice sued them on Thursday.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

Much of Donald Trump’s unpopularity in polls stems from dissatisfaction over the economy and war on Iran

• US politics live – latest updates

***

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© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

Après avoir épuisé tous ses recours, il souhaite maintenant une intervention ministérielle de dernière minute.

DHS says migrants ‘retain protections’ after temporary protected status was set to expire on Monday

• Send us your questions about immigration and the midterms

More than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk of deportation, the Department of Homeland Security said, in what amounts to a temporary reprieve after their right to stay in the country was set to expire on Monday.

Temporary protected status was set to end on Monday for about 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese. But the DHS said an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time”. Until then, the department said in a written statement, Ukrainians and Sudanese in the US covered by those temporary measures “retain protection”. The department did not indicate how long they could stay or when a final announcement would be made on their status.

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© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

© Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty Images

The man had been detained at an immigration center in Laredo, Texas, since June. Immigration officials said he had received proper medical care.

© Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Crackdown marks latest escalation in the Trump justice department’s push to target alleged noncitizen voting

• Send us your questions about immigration and the midterms

The US Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against 28 green card holders in California accused of fraudulently registering to vote and casting illegal ballots.

The crackdown marks another escalation in the federal government’s ongoing efforts against alleged noncitizen voting, efforts that Democrats and voting rights groups say are part of a strategy by the Trump administration to sow doubt in the results of the upcoming midterm elections.

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© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

© Photograph: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Ricardo Gonzalez was injured and taken to hospital after confrontation in Long Beach, according to officials

Federal immigration agents broke the arm of a US citizen in what a Democratic congressman said was a “brutal attack” during a confrontation with protesters in California.

Video of Saturday’s encounter in Long Beach shows Ricardo Gonzalez, identified as a former city employee, handcuffed and face down in a gutter, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers kneeling on his back.

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© Photograph: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

© Photograph: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

Ex-president urges Americans to defend congresswoman, saying ‘there’s no reason to believe it will stop with her’

Former US president Barack Obama condemned comments by Donald Trump’s “border czar” that the Republican presidential administration could “of course” strip Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar of her citizenship and deport her.

Obama wrote Sunday morning, on X, that “the full weight of the federal government is being brought down on a law-abiding elected official because she has dared to criticize the president.”

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© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

© Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Federal officer slammed vehicle into a construction worker while pursuing a man who died in similar circumstances

A federal officer slammed a vehicle into a Houston construction worker and broke his leg, believing him to be a man who apparently died years ago, the dead man’s family said on Friday, further calling into question the account given by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The worker, 48-year-old Miguel Parra Hernandez of Mexico, remains hospitalized with multiple leg fractures and needs reconstructive ankle surgery, according to FIEL, a Houston-based immigration advocacy group. At a news conference on Friday, the group said the alleged suspect’s family had shared documentation proving his death.

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© Photograph: Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/AP

© Photograph: Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/AP

© Photograph: Raquel Natalicchio/Houston Chronicle/AP

The new restrictions ban unauthorized drone flights within a nautical mile of the southern border, up to 400 feet in the air.

© Paul Ratje for The New York Times

Concerns about the state’s immigration dragnet may keep the itinerant labor force at home, threatening Hurricane Isaias recovery efforts.

Court filing alleges ‘physical abuse by guards’, ‘filthy living conditions’ and disease outbreaks at Camp East Montana

• How has Trump’s immigration agenda affected the US midterms? Send us your questions

Attorneys and experts are raising the alarm that immigrants at Camp East Montana, the sprawling desert detention camp on the Fort Bliss military base in west Texas, face a risk of serious injury or death because of ongoing, extreme health and safety hazards there, according to a fresh court filing, the Guardian can reveal.

The allegedly dangerous conditions persist at the tent jail, the largest immigration detention facility in the US, despite regular reports from inside and outside the federal government that it has violated dozens of official standards since it opened last year.

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© Composite: AP, Reuters

© Composite: AP, Reuters

© Composite: AP, Reuters

Thousands of vetted and approved refugees are suffering as Trump restricts quotas and prioritizes white South Africans

Donald Trump plans to once more severely restrict the number of refugees admitted to the US, announcing a limit of just 17,500 people in fiscal year 2027 – and that, again, those let in will be “primarily” white South Africans.

Refugee rights groups are alarmed and infuriated at the decision last month by the US president to exclude almost every other demographic.

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© Composite: AFP via Getty Images

© Composite: AFP via Getty Images

© Composite: AFP via Getty Images

ICE agents rammed a man during a pursuit in Houston, leaving him with a shattered leg. But a bulletin of the target shows a man who died in 2017, his daughter said.

© Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Join our final live Q&A before the midterm elections, on 22 October at noon ET on the Guardian US site

Since Donald Trump started his second term in January 2025, immigration enforcement has remained a major issue for US voters, with arrests reaching record highs, operations becoming deadly and immigration raids hitting politicians’ homes. Our reporting has documented the experiences of those directly affected by the harsh conditions in detention centers and resistance to ICE agents on the ground.

Immigration will be a defining issue in the final weeks of campaigning for the 2026 US midterm elections.

The makeup of the Democratic party, plus key races to watch

Who are the groups financially backing the candidates in the midterms?

Will the Iran war cost Trump in the US midterm elections? Your questions answered

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© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

© Illustration: Teresa Lo/Guardian Design

Exclusive: Trump has falsely claimed Afrikaners are facing ‘white genocide’, but very few have applied to live in US

The US government could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a media campaign in South Africa to figure out why more white Afrikaners are not applying to become refugees to the US, as Donald Trump had hoped.

State department officials, according to an August proposal seen by the Guardian, outlined a roughly $335,000 research and advertising effort after applications to the refugee program “trended lower than expected” since Afrikaners were allowed to apply directly online in November 2025. The document, written by the US mission in South Africa with a department research unit for the embassy in Pretoria, admits officials know little about why.

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© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

© Photograph: Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP

Many unaccompanied minors are facing deportation hearings without a lawyer because of the Trump administration’s dispute with an organization that helps provide legal representation to thousands of migrant children. Our national reporter Jazmine Ulloa explains. Read more: https://nyti.ms/3TJaBEB

For years, the government has helped secure lawyers for minors who arrive at the southern border. But a contract dispute has forced many children to face immigration judges on their own.

© Todd Heisler/The New York Times

The court said that California could not impose state requirements on federal law enforcement operations.

© Daniel Cole/Reuters

Account by Oscar Belgal differs sharply from that of DHS agents, who fired into vehicle with young boy in back seat

Lawyers for a man wounded by an immigration officer while driving with his young son in New York City said in a court filing Wednesday that the agent who shot him never identified himself before he ran up to the car, smashed one of its windows, then fired several shots into the vehicle.

The account by lawyers for Oscar Belgal contrasted sharply with the version of events outlined by Department of Homeland Security officials. They have said officers opened fire only after Belgal smashed his car into two government vehicles and “accelerated toward other officers”.

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© Photograph: Pedro Almarez/Reuters

© Photograph: Pedro Almarez/Reuters

© Photograph: Pedro Almarez/Reuters

A conviction on the possible charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon could mean up to 20 years in prison

A Texas prosecutor said he was considering felony assault charges for an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer who ran over a man following an attempted traffic stop and broke his leg in multiple places.

Sean Teare, district attorney for Harris county, said video of the incident in west Houston on Saturday morning, in which the officer’s unmarked SUV is seen veering into the man as he runs away across an empty parking lot, could support a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

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© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

© Photograph: Annie Mulligan/AP

The Harris County district attorney said investigators from his office did not believe that the crash that left Miguel Parra Hernandez injured over the weekend was accidental.

European nations that condemn the Taliban government for its human rights record are seeking its help to deport refugees back to Afghanistan.

© Tomas Munita for The New York Times

The shipwreck is among the deadliest ever recorded on the route to Yemen, the International Organization for Migration said. Dozens remain missing, and the bodies of 15 children were recovered.

© International Organization for Migration Djibouti, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The setup has cost more than $100 million, the study said. A recent inspection found nearly 450 government employees and zero detainees.

© Doug Mills/The New York Times

Two men were mistakenly arrested in the Bronx by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Gary R. Brown, a federal judge, condemned the agency’s actions.

© Todd Heisler/The New York Times

Son premier roman intitulé «C’était ça ou mourir» vient à peine d’être publié, qu’il suscite un engouement monstre. Près d’une quinzaine de maisons d’édition...
— Permalien

Pour cette émission consacrée à la rentrée littéraire, Augustin Trapenard accueille Thélyson Orélien, pour son premier roman, "C'était ça ou mourir", publié ...
— Permalien

[L'article Comment les cinq principaux partis se positionnent en matière d’immigration a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

[L'article Au moins neuf personnes sont mortes lors d’une arrivée massive de migrants en Espagne a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

Il paraît que l’Allemagne et le Danemark devraient servir d’exemple au Québec en matière de politique migratoire. C’est ce que laisse entendre le député Alex Boissonneault dans une vidéo voulant défaire le « mythe » que « plus d’immigration veut dire moins de pénurie de main d’œuvre ». Selon lui, les gouvernements allemand et danois ont changé leur politique d’immigration après avoir réalisé que l’immigration ne règle pas la pénurie de main-d’œuvre. M. Boissonneault connaît-il réellement la politique migratoire de ces deux pays et leurs fondements?

« Il y a plusieurs exemples de pays qui ont changé de politique en matière d’immigration parce qu’ils ont constaté cette situation. C’est le cas de l’Allemagne. L’Allemagne qui comptait beaucoup sur l’immigration pour combler ses postes vacants mais qui a constaté en 2023 que l’augmentation de l’immigration avait créé une pénurie de main d’œuvre dans les secteurs névralgiques. Donc il y a eu changement de politique. »

C’est complètement faux. La modification de la politique migratoire allemande en 2023 n’a rien à voir avec des considérations économiques ou sociales. Au même moment où le gouvernement d’Olaf Scholz renforçait le contrôle des frontières, l’Allemagne cherchait à attirer des travailleurs étrangers, en particulier les travailleurs qualifiés, notamment en réduisant les barrières administratives. Voici ce qu’affirmait Scholz en novembre 2024: « Aucun pays du monde ne peut connaître de croissance économique avec une main-d’oeuvre qui diminue. C’est la vérité à laquelle nous sommes confrontés. » Dans le même discours, le chancelier allemand défend le droit de l’Allemagne de choisir qui est admis en son sein, donc de repousser les réfugiés. Le problème de l’Allemagne n’est pas que l’immigration ne suffit pas à combler la pénurie de main-d’oeuvre, mais qu’elle ne parvient pas à attirer une main d’oeuvre de souche européenne en assez grande quantité.

« Même chose pour le Danemark avec un gouvernement social-démocrate, normalement considéré de gauche. Le gouvernement danois a constaté que l’augmentation de l’immigration a eu des conséquences négatives sur les services à la population. Il y a donc eu un changement de politique. »

Encore une fois, ce « changement de politique » du gouvernement danois n’a rien à voir avec l’économie ou avec les services à la population. C’est une question purement idéologique et, ce gouvernement ne s’en cache pas, raciste.

Commençons par dire que le racisme n’est pas une question de droite ou de gauche. On peut très bien être à gauche économiquement et à droite sur le plan de l’identité nationale. C’est le cas de la première ministre danoise, Mette Frederiksen, très attachée à l’État-providence danois, mais ouvertement raciste. En 2018, elle proposait de renvoyer les migrants « non occidentaux », non seulement du Danemark, mais de l’Europe, et de les placer dans des camps de concentration en Afrique sous supervision des Nations unies. À son arrivée au pouvoir en 2019, Frederiksen a promis de faire du Danemark un pays « sans demandeur d’asile ». En 2021, le gouvernement danois a voté une loi pour expulser les demandeurs d’asile hors d’Europe en attendant le traitement de leur demande, en contradiction totale avec les traités internationaux et les directives européennes. En 2022, une entente est signée avec le Rwanda. En gros, le Danemark paie le Rwanda pour détenir les demandeurs d’asile. Un bien triste revirement pour le premier pays à avoir signé la Convention de 1951 sur les réfugiés. Ce n’est pas sans raison que ce gouvernement « social-démocrate » est appuyé par l’extrême droite danoise.

En soi, la politique de Frederiksen et des sociaux-démocrates ne jure pas avec celle des administrations précédentes. Depuis le début des années 2000, le gouvernement danois est hostile à l’immigration. Le délai nécessaire pour obtenir la résidence permanente est passé de trois à huit ans. La « loi sur les étrangers » est modifiée régulièrement pour devenir toujours plus restrictive et viser des groupes en particulier. Elle a été modifiée 42 fois entre 2017 et 2019. Et la loi danoise est ouvertement raciste en ciblant des groupes spécifiques. En 2016, les Syriens ont été directement ciblés par une loi restreignant l’accés au regroupement familial pour les réfugiés et confisquant leurs objets de valeur pour financer leur séjour. En 2018, des mesures sont prises pour que des peines plus sévères soient infligées aux « résidents non occidentaux ». Des amendes importantes sont infligées aux personnes venant en aide aux « immigrants irréguliers ». Et pour bien montrer que la politique danoise est motivée par le racisme et non pas par des préoccupations économiques ou sociales, le Danemark a ouvert grand ses portes aux réfugiés ukrainiens fuyant l’invasion russe.

Ironiquement, ces dernières années, c’est la droite (modérée) qui a commencé à demander un assouplissement des politiques migratoires au Danemark. Pas pour des raisons humanitaire, mais pour des raisons économiques. Il y a une pénurie de main-d’œuvre, voyez-vous. Et les employeurs aimeraient bien qu’on leur permette de recruter à l’étranger les travailleurs qu’ils ne trouvent pas localement.

Christèle Meilland, chercheuse à l’Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (IRES), explique que la politique migratoire danoise s’appuie sur un discours « assimilant les étrangers, et particulièrement les réfugiés, à un fardeau pour l’État-providence ». Ça vous rappelle quelque chose?