Estrosi’s Bid for Greater Mayoral Jurisdiction in Dealing with Migrants

On July 22, 2022, the Nice administrative court handed down a decision allowing for the eviction of an illegal migrant camp in the city. The initial request to carry out said eviction was made in April by Nice mayor Christian Estrosi.

Within a day, the migrants were expelled. ActuNice interviewed a young Cameroonian migrant living at the camp before being evicted — he reported that police “flattened and burst the tents to prevent people from staying.”

ActuNice also announced that the eviction order was illegal. According to the local news source, someone close to the case claimed that the administrative court decision could not prove whether the migrants were aware that they would be evicted.

Municipal police must serve court notifications of eviction before returning a receipt signed by the affected party to the municipal clerk’s office. This confirms that the evicted party was indeed notified in advance.

According to ActuNice's research, the impacted party in this case — the migrants — was not given a notice of eviction. Overall, evicting an illegal camp is largely unconducive to typical legal procedure as migrants do not possess a permanent address to be served court papers and are rarely capable of defending themselves with legal representation.

Contrary to this account, the mayor’s office reported that the notification of the order was served at the migrant camp, and the clerk’s office claims it was received.

Estrosi’s campaign for greater mayoral jurisdiction 

Over the summer, Estrosi began to push for mayors across France to “have the means to act directly” when evacuating migrant camps. He envisions a reality wherein mayors would no longer have to appeal to the court to order an eviction nor be burdened with inapplicable legal procedure. Instead, municipal police would carry out evictions immediately at the mayor’s request. 

In late July of 2022, Estrosi enumerated these aspirations in writing to the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin. He made five proposals, including 1) reviewing current legislation to allow municipal police to intervene to stop illegal encampments 2) allowing municipal police to carry out identity checks 3) authorizing the municipal police to seize the materials and equipment of wandering populations 4) simplifying procedures for the placement of children and 5) initiating the revision of the Schengen Agreements to allow for systematic border checks which will assess whether an individual has the means to live on French soil for more than three months. 

In August, Estrosi stated on Twitter that his community is “faced with clandestine and wandering populations,” making it “necessary to rearm the state and arm our communities.” Per Estrosi, there is an influx of “Nomadic populations from Eastern countries” in Nice, some of whom “cause significant disturbances to public order.”

All of Estrosi’s statements and propositions can be read here.

(Christian Estrosi on Twitter: "Suite à l’annonce de la présentation d’un projet de loi relatif à l’#immigration à l’automne, j'ai écrit à @GDarmanin pour lui faire part de ma contribution et de mes propositions afin de renforcer le pouvoir des Maires, notamment concernant les populations errantes. https://t.co/FTkerJvtJT" / Twitter)

Natacha Bouchart, mayor of Calais — a city on the North coast of France with a significant undocumented migrant population — expressed support for Estrosi’s efforts, stating, “Giving this power to the mayor would make it possible to act in a more relevant time of responsiveness.”

A New Immigration Bill in Discussion

Estrosi’s decision to send this proposal came soon after July 27, when Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin announced his intent to present a new immigration bill to the Senate. According to sources close to the Minister, the bill would focus on “facilitating deportation and simplifying the [asylum] dispute process.”

French President Emmanuel Macron passed the current immigration bill in 2018. During his re-election campaign, Macron promised to enforce laws to deport foreigners with rejected asylum applications.

However, less than two weeks after this announcement, on August 4, Minister Darmanin admitted that the examination of the new bill would be postponed until the beginning of 2023. In the meantime, Darmanin asserted that a “major debate” on the matter would take place in Parliament. 

On September 16, Macron confirmed that a new bill on asylum and immigration would be proposed in early 2023. With regard to this bill, Macron called for asylum seekers to be distributed around the country, as opposed to being concentrated in urban zones. He also promised to improve the effectiveness of deportation policies.. 

Though Estrosi agrees that a new bill ought to be passed, he is pushing for a tougher bill than the one announced by Darmanin or described by Macron. Further, the proposal made by Estrosi in July places significant emphasis on strengthening municipal powers.  

Going Forward

While the continual effort to tighten French immigration law proceeds at both a local and national level, the flow of people hoping to cross into France shows no signs of slowing. The migrant organization “Caritas,” based along the Franco-Italian border, reported greater numbers of migrants passing through Ventimiglia this August. Confronted by the apparent inefficacy of increased deportations and controls to quell the flow of migrants, the question becomes: what purpose will a tougher immigration bill serve? If municipal authorities are awarded the ability to confiscate the possessions of migrants and directly order evictions without appealing to the courts, it seems likely to worsen an already serious humanitarian situation at the Italian border, in Calais and across France.