Spain offering amnesty to 500K illegal migrants bucks EU, global trend, sparks backlash

At a time when most of Europe is tightening border controls and rethinking asylum policies, Spain is taking a different tack, announcing a dramatic regularization plan for undocumented migrants that has sparked domestic backlash and raised eyebrows among leaders from other European states.

Spain, the European Union’s only major member state still governed by a socialist-led coalition, this week announced a reform that will grant up to half a million people legal status. In a country of around 50 million residents, that amounts to around 1% of the population.

In announcing the reform, Elma Saiz, Spain’s minister for Migration, said beneficiaries of the reform will be able to seek work “in any sector, in any part of the country.” 

She also said migrants in the country had “a positive impact” and that the plan would “give dignity” to people already working in Spain.

“Some say we’re going too far, that we’re going against the current,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said via social media. “When did recognizing human rights become something radical?”

Spain’s change in policy comes as the European Union’s other major countries – France, Germany and Italy – have been pushing for tighter immigration controls, stepping up border patrols, scaling back asylum rights and helping to fund initiatives to create incentives for would-be migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia to stay home.

As in the U.S., public sentiment in Europe is largely opposed to the plan. But European countries have so far stopped short of the Trump administration's effort – led by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency – that focuses on locking down its borders to stop illegal migration and deporting those already in the country with criminal records.

“We know we have to take more control over our borders,” Magnus Brunner, the European Union’s top migration official, said this week.

In France the number of “regularized” migrants was down 10% last year compared to 2024, though there was an increase in foreign student arrivals. In broad terms, the country has been stepping up enforcement efforts by hiring more agents and increasing border control budgets.

On Friday, Germany reached a deal to finally implement the European Union’s Common European Asylum System over opposition by the far-right Alternative for Germany political party. While the reform will speed up processing of asylum requests, it will also reduce access to programs by unauthorized arrivals.

In Italy, which has pushed hardest for stricter European rules on mass migration, the topic was front page news this week after the trial began to determine responsibility for a 2023 migrant tragedy in which 90 people die off the southern Italian coast while trying to reach Italian shores. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continues to push for a plan that would allow Italy to process new refugee arrivals at facilities in Albania, which is outside the European Union and so not subject to the bloc’s asylum rules.

In the U.K., which is not a member of the European Union, a new survey said that the public continues to believe migrant arrivals are on the rise even as numbers trend downward. Late last year, tension over the topic of illegal migration sparked riots and protests in some parts of the country.  

Spain says most of the new arrivals there are coming from Latin America, though the backlash against the new policy is based in part on media reports about arrivals from Africa scaling fences to reach Spanish enclaves in North Africa or reaching Spain’s shores in makeshift boats.

According to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, overall “irregular” migrant arrivals in January were about half the level from a year earlier and down by 60% compared to the same month in 2024. 

Last year was the second consecutive year that overall refugee arrivals in Europe declined following a seven-year high of more than 275,000 new arrivals in 2023, UN statistics showed.

Alan Mendoza, executive director of the Henry Jackson Society, a trans-Atlantic foreign policy and national security think tank, based in the United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital, "Spain’s decision appears calculated to increase the lure of Europe as a destination for illegal migrants in general, causing problems for all of its neighbors. 

"If Spain wishes to become a repository for such people, then I’m sure other European countries would appreciate signing agreements to transfer their own illegal migrants there," he said. "Absent this, we will all be paying the price for Spanish largesse."

Vox, a national conservative political party in Spain, considers the plan amnesty that could fuel irregular migration.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal wrote on social media that the measure "harms all Spaniards," Fox Digital also reports.