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France Hunts Down Illegal Immigrants

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By ELAINE GANLEY, The Associated Press

Published: September 23, 2007

PARIS - A Russian boy suffers head injuries after falling from a window while trying to elude police. A North African man slips from a window ledge and fractures his leg while fleeing officers. A Chinese woman lies in a coma after plunging from a window during a police check.

As France races to deport 25,000 illegal immigrants by the end of the year - a quota set by President Nicolas Sarkozy - tensions are mounting and the crackdown is taking a toll.

Critics say the hunt threatens values in a nation that prides itself on being a cradle of human rights and a land of asylum. Protesters have gathered by the dozens in Paris to protect illegal aliens as police move in.

But with three months left in the year, police have caught at least 11,800 immigrants, less than half the target, so Sarkozy has ordered officials to pick up the pace.

'I want numbers,' Sarkozy reportedly told Brice Hortefeux, head of the Ministry of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Co-Development, which Sarkozy set up after taking office in May. 'This is a campaign commitment. The French expect action on this.'

There are no solid estimates of the number of illegal immigrants in France. The Immigration Ministry puts it at 200,000 to 400,000, many from former colonies in Africa. France has a population of about 63 million.

The president, who cultivated a tough-on-crime image as Interior Minister, says France needs a new kind of immigrant - one who is 'selected, not endured.'

His government is fast-tracking tighter immigration legislation. Parliament's lower house on Thursday approved a bill that would allow consular officers to request DNA samples from immigrants trying to join relatives in France. Even some Cabinet ministers dislike the measure, which critics say betrays France's humanitarian values.

The DNA tests would be voluntary and proponents say such testing, which would get a trial run until 2010, would speed visa processing and give immigrants a way to bolster their applications.
Immigration legislation under consideration also aims to ensure that immigrants joining family members here speak French and grasp French values - to be proved with tests.

Sarkozy has gone on to suggest immigration quotas by regions of the world and by occupation.

'I want us to be able to establish each year, after a debate in parliament, a quota with a ceiling for the number of foreigners we accept on our territory,' he said.

Meanwhile, resistance to France's crackdown has built among human rights groups, politicians of the opposition left, and even police. Injuries of foreigners during the past two months also have mobilized critics.

'Reactions are becoming more and more violent,' said Pierre Willem of the UNSA police union.

Some police officers worry they will get caught in the numbers hunt - accused of racism for making arrests on the basis of skin color or other illegal criteria.

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