French President Emmanuel Macron admits that half the crimes committed in Paris are the work of foreigners during an interview yesterday on the France 2 television channel.
“Yes, when we look at delinquency in Paris, we can see that half of the delinquent acts come from foreigners in an irregular situation or awaiting asylum approval,” said Macron.
However, Macron also said that despite the issue with immigration and insecurity, he sees no “existential” link between the two.
“I will never make an existential link between immigration and insecurity,” said Macron just 10 days after the murder of 12-year-old Lola, who was raped, had her throat slashed, and was stuffed in a suitcase by an Algerian migrant who was in the country illegally.
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Macron is under severe pressure after the murder, with a number of leading opposition politicians laying the blame for the murder at his feet and pointing to his abysmal record on deportations. Macron previously promised in 2020 that he was aiming for a 100 percent deportation rate. That rate currently hovers under 6 percent, and in the case of Algerians, it is 0.2 percent.
Despite growing anger, Macron is pushing a plan to send more migrants to the countryside, a move that is overwhelming rejected by the French public there. He also said in February of this year that migration from Africa and the Middle East “can make France greater.”
On top of inflation and growing unrest, the issue of immigration is turning political opinion against the French leader. As in the past, such as following the beheading of French history teacher Samuel Paty by a Chechen Islamist teen, Macron has put forward a number of “reforms” to assuage public anger, but many of the proposals were never enforced or have done little to disrupt France’s issues with insecurity, including a 91 percent increase in murders since 2000.
This time around, Macron claims he wants “in-depth reform” and a “debate in parliament on immigration.”
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“We must reform our laws in depth to be able to better welcome those we want to welcome,” he said during the Europe 2 interview. He offered little in terms of how he plans to address problems with integration and the country’s inability to deport cirminal migrants.
However, Macron’s admission that illegal migrants or migrants awaiting asylum are responsible for half the crime in Paris is supported by data. The recently retired Paris chief of police, Didier Lallement, made assertions just this month, writing in his new book that “one out of every two crimes is committed by a foreigner, who are often in the country illegally… It is clear that some of the newcomers are integrating through delinquency.”
It is also unclear what the racial and ethnic breakdown of crime statistics is in France, as there are many French citizens of “foreign origin” who are not counted as foreigners since they have obtained citizenship. France does not keep data on the ethnic or racial identity of suspects. However, in other cities, such as Marseilles, 55 percent of all crimes are committed by foreigners, a rate even higher than Paris, illustrating that it is a countrywide issue.
