This Is The Damage Left Behind By Retailleau’s  Toll On Immigrants

Figures released by the French Ministry of Interior revealed the extent of the damage inflicted by former minister Bruno Retailleau  on immigrant communities, due to a harsh directive he signed before leaving the “Beauvau” palace. This led to a nearly 50% drop in the acceptance rate of residency permit applications, an unprecedented event in French history.

With a touch of pride, former French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau tweeted on his “X” platform account, stating: “One year after Retailleau’s directive, the regularization of residency acceptance files (in France) sharply declined” during the first nine months of 2025, when Retailleau was Interior Minister. The leader of the right-wing “Les Républicains” party clarified that this decline was due to the obstacles he put in place to limit the response to residency applications submitted by immigrants.

The former French Interior Minister said: “At the Ministry of Interior, I set clear and strict rules for the regularization of residents’ situations, the duration of stay in the country, French language proficiency, and respect for public order.” He added in the tweet: “The result was: a 42% decrease in issued residency permits, a 54% decrease in work-based regularizations, and a 58% decrease in regularizations based on private and family life.”

Bruno Retailleau concluded with a passing message to his country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and those who rejected the “iron fist” policy he tried to establish in relations with Algeria, during the era of the fallen François Bayrou government, of which he was a member. He said: “Firmness is not just a slogan, but a policy that achieves tangible results,” which indicates that the directive targeted Algerians, because the “policy of firmness,” as he called it, was directed against Algeria, as is well known.

In this context, Le Monde newspaper reported that the directive signed by Bruno Retailleau  when he was Interior Minister, which complicated the situation of residency applicants to an unprecedented degree, came to supersede another directive signed by former French Interior Minister Manuel Valls in 2012, which included “more open and precise regularization criteria than those that had prevailed until then.”

The same newspaper obtained figures from the French Ministry of Interior, indicating the issuance of 11,002 permits, compared to 19,001 permits during the first nine months of 2024. This decline includes almost all categories, work-based regularizations, which decreased by 54% to 2,653 permits, as well as regularizations based on private and family life, which slumped by 58% to less than 4,000 permits.

Le Monde states that even foreigners who meet the current criteria face the risk of rejection, as the regularization process remains subject to the discretion of the prefects appointed by Retailleau. One of them stated: “Retailleau’s  directive had little legal effect, but it had a significant impact on the atmosphere, as it sent a clear message of rejection to both prefects and applicants, who were discouraged from submitting applications.”

Due to the complexities imposed by the former French Interior Minister for obtaining residency and work, activists in the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) in Paris warn of the continuation of the current situation, and confirm that “the situation of foreign workers is deteriorating. The criteria contained in Retailleau’s directive are very vague. We cannot even advise people to apply for a residency permit, as they risk a lot.”

Meanwhile, Le Monde quoted Elsa Ganascia, an immigration lawyer in Grenoble, as saying: “It is better to remain undocumented to avoid a deportation order. I don’t even allow people to come to my office,” because any rejection of a residency permit, based on Retailleau’s  directive, is automatically accompanied by a deportation order, as the 2024 “Immigration” law stipulated that a deportation order is valid for three years, compared to one year previously.

The same source cited testimonies from immigrants who met all the conditions for obtaining residency, including French language proficiency, but their applications were met with unjustified rejection, amidst condemnation from politicians and trade unionists, but without any change in their situation.