French parliamentarians adopted a bill on May 5, which will extend administrative detention for irregular immigrants deemed "dangerous".

Charles Rodwell, the Renaissance MP proposing the bill, won approval for the measure from 345 MPs ranging from the center to the far-right National Rally, while 177 leftist MPs voted against the legislation.

The measure will allow authorities to hold foreigners in detention for an extended period, providing that they: are subject to an OQTF (obligation to leave French territory); have been convicted in the past to at least three years in prison and represent a “real, present, and particularly serious” threat to public order.

The current maximum detention period is 90 days, or 180 days for those convicted of terrorist crimes. For this latter category, the new bill brings the detention period up to 210 days.  

After winning a majority of votes in the National Assembly, the bill is scheduled to be examined by the Senate later this month.

A bill that will affect 'only a few dozen people a year'

Last summer, the Constitution Council struck down a similar extension bill, ruling that it was “disproportionate”. This led lawmakers to reintroduce the measure with more restrictive language, taking the previous ruling into account. The new bill will affect “only a few dozen people a year”, said Rodwell.

This extension to 210 days was widely supported and championed by the former interior minister Bruno Retailleau. The law gained traction after the killing in 2024 of a student named Philippine by an undocumented Moroccan citizen. The suspect had recently been released from detention and was subject to an OQTF.

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"[The victim] lived in my constituency and a year and a half ago, I promised her family to bring forward a text that would transcend the political spectrum and protect public freedoms while reinforcing security,” said Rodwell, an elected representative of Yvelines.

Undocumented foreigners can currently be held in an administrative detention center (CRA) pending their deportation -- if they risk absconding. According to French and European law, detaining a foreigner in a CRA can only be used as a last resort, “in the cases where the administration has no other means which are less detrimental to individual rights while carrying out the expulsion," said the association La Cimade.

According to French law, being in an irregular situation is an administrative irregularity, not a crime.

'Prison without a trial'

Reactions to the bill were numerous. "It’s a law for communication," validating "the principle of prison without a trial," said the sociologist Céline Hervieu. For the ecologist MP Stella Dupont, the measure will not lead to more deportations. "Most often, the obstacles stem from the country of origin in recognizing its nationals. Without this recognition, no expulsion is possible. The priority is therefore to strengthen negotiation and diplomacy with these countries, not to keep these people locked up indefinitely," wrote Dupont on the X social media network.

The text also addresses the threat of terrorism. It allows prefects to issue "psychiatric examination orders" for certain individuals.

These are people who demonstrated adherence to "theories inciting or glorifying acts of terrorism," or "actions likely to be [. . .] linked to mental disorders”. Following the exam, the prefect may order the person to be hospitalized.

This allows for intervention "before the act is committed," said Eric Martineau (from MoDem, a center party). Green Party MP Léa Balage El Mariky, on the other hand, slammed the measure that transformed "psychiatrists into agents of internal security" and "care into control."

The bill also provides for the creation of "terrorist preventive detention," allowing individuals to be placed in a treatment centers under certain conditions, following a prison sentence. This is already the case for certain crimes which aren’t linked to terrorism.

These are "very concrete" measures that Charles Rodwell hopes will be definitively adopted this summer.

Over 16,000 people were detained in detention centers in 2024, according to La Cimade. The number increases to 40,000 if foreign nationals detained in detention centers in France’s overseas departments and regions (Mayotte, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion and Saint-Martin) are included in the statistic.