The French Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, has announced the deployment of 4,000 police officers in an operation against irregular immigration at train and bus stations across the country. "I want to say in the strongest and most definitive terms that the undocumented are not welcome in France," declared Retailleau on the CNews/Europe channel when announcing the unprecedented offensive.
Retailleau, recently elected as the new leader of the traditional right-wing party The Republicans, has made his relentless fight against irregular immigration his peculiar flagship and a springboard for his 2027 presidential campaign, in direct competition with Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN).
Considered the most radical member of centrist François Bayrou's coalition government, Retailleau is also the most highly rated minister for his tough stance against immigration and drug trafficking, guided by the principle of "restoring order" and criticized for his verbal excesses such as "the Mexicanization of the border" with Spain.
"A country is made up of borders, one internal and one external," emphasized Retailleau on Wednesday, stating that French authorities have arrested 47,000 irregular immigrants so far this year. The deployment affects not only the police but also customs officers and soldiers assigned to Operation Sentinel, created 10 years ago to increase protection against terrorism, whose intimidating presence (heavily armed) is common in French stations.
In a statement sent to police stations across the country, the Ministry of the Interior has issued instructions to reinforce "the control of trains heading to major French cities and neighboring countries, both inbound and outbound."
Retailleau confirmed that the "national flow control operation" actually began on May 20 and resulted in a 28% increase in the detention of "foreigners in irregular situations" (ESIs in French) to reach 750 daily detentions.
Irregular immigration, with slogans reminiscent of Donald Trump, indeed became the top priority during the recent campaign for the leadership of The Republicans. Retailleau's rival, Laurent Wauquiez, even proposed "locking up" foreigners awaiting deportation on the archipelago of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the last vestige of the French colonial empire in North America alongside the coasts of Newfoundland: "It is a very cold territory, and that would make people think."