French Report: Illegal Immigration Costs €1.8 Billion Annually
6th January 2024
The president of France’s supreme audit institution admits to deliberately delaying the release of a report on illegal immigration costs until after the parliamentary debate—and vote—on immigration law. The report, just released by the Cour des Comptes, shows the exorbitant sum of €1.8 billion charged to illegal immigration in 2023.
Published on Thursday, January 4th, the report is a harsh indictment of government policy, in particular the actions of Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who boasts of having taken a tough stance on managing illegal immigrants. Darmanin claims to have introduced an effective policy for expelling illegal immigrants and says the expulsion rate of delinquent foreigners is up by 30%.
The first president of the Court, former socialist minister Pierre Moscovici, would normally have published the report in question on December 13th—two days after the vote on the motion to reject the first version of the immigration law—but preferred to remain temporarily silent on a document that is damning for the government. He defended himself by explaining that he did not want “this publication to interfere in any way with the political debate.”