Lower house approves new immigration law

Text represents progress against discrimination and criminalization of immigrants living in Brazil

By a broad majority, the Lower House of Congress approved on the evening of December 6 a new immigration law (Bill 2516/15) to replace the Foreigner Act, which was passed in 1980 during the military dictatorship. The text will now return to a full session of the Senate, where it has already been approved, for a confirmation vote.

The bill voted in the lower house is the amended version approved unanimously by a special commission in June.

Drafted by Senator Aloysio Nunes, the bill guarantees immigrants, among other things, the right to participate in protests and unions, which was forbidden by the Foreigner Act, and it combats criminalization for immigration reasons – which means, for example, that immigrants cannot be detained for being undocumented. Although it is not broadly applied, detention for immigration reasons is permitted by the Foreigner Act.

Another important change is the consolidation and expansion of the policy of providing humanitarian visas, which is currently provisional and only available for Syrians and Haitians. This initiative permits at-risk people to travel to Brazil and, once here, apply for refugee status.

“At a time when there are so many threats in the legislature, it is very important to celebrate advances like this, built over the course of many years by social movements and organizations that work with immigration in Brazil,” said Camila Asano, coordinator of the Foreign Policy program at Conectas.

“The lower house is helping correct an unacceptable distortion in our legislation. The approved text makes progress on several aspects and represents a victory, albeit a belated one, over a policy that viewed immigration as a matter for the police, a matter of national security, and not as a right,” she added.

In recent weeks, an online petition organized by six organizations that work with the topic managed to collect more than 9,000 signatures asking members of Congress to approve the new law.

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