The European Parliament enabled the Return Regulation, deepening a reactionary migration policy. The ultra-right and Trump generate a strong revulsive that has been expressed with massive mobilizations against their policies in the US and UK. The unity of action in mobilization and the united front are a powerful tool to confront them. The alternative to barbarism is socialism in a world without borders.
By Florencia Salgueiro.
A leap in the expulsion policy
After receiving the approval of the Member States (the Council) at the end of last year, the plenary of the European Parliament enabled the Return Regulation, based on: the creation of deportation centers in third countries, the extension of detention, the withdrawal of social benefits, identity checks, workplace inspections and entry bans. In addition, it opened the door to do so with the cooperation of non-EU regimes, which is not new, but has now been legitimized.
In the text, which was ratified in the European Parliament with the votes of the European People’s Party, conservatives and the ultra-right, they eliminated the most controversial point, which was to allow the door-to-door search of undocumented persons as the hooded ICE agents do in the U.S. But it is possible that it is only momentary, since the Council does not reject raids and house arrests, so the possibility remains open that it will be included after institutional negotiations. They are putting a new cement block to the walls of “Fortress Europe”.
Paulatino normalization shift to the far right
The idea of externalizing asylum in the European Union (EU) is not new, it had previously been discarded on several occasions due to legal issues, but now it is a reality. The decisions taken continue to fray the “cordon sanitaire” to the far right and, consequently, collaborate with its institutional and social normalization.
During 2015, a migration crisis erupted when a million refugees arrived at European borders. Since then, the bloc has responded with back-and-forth, but in a clearly reactionary direction that has been evidenced by the crises of ships like the “Ocean Viking” stranded in the Mediterranean and many others.
The arrival of small boats that are abandoned to their fate or prevented from entering by the European authorities, causes many to end up at the bottom of the seas. According to data from different NGOs that vary among them (International Organization for Migration, Caminando Fronteras, etc.), although the estimates are consistent, it is taken for granted that these figures are underestimated due to the disappearance of boats and unrecorded deaths. Some approximate data show the horror that Europe encourages: 2025, by sea: between 2,000 and 2,500 dead, route to Spain (cayucos/pateras): 3,090 dead, children: 437.
These are not fortuitous episodes, but a sustained drift.
Next summer, the Asylum and Migration Pact will enter into force, with the creation of deportation centers to third countries – no connection or link with the place of destination required – but of prior agreement with the Member States. In 2018 they had tried to create “disembarkation platforms” which they had to discard due to doubts about their legality. It was then that the migratory agreements with Turkey opened the way to buy with millions of euros the governments of the countries of origin and transit in exchange for slowing down the barges in the Mediterranean.
The growing “iron fist” with immigration is a consolidating trend. In 2025 France, Macron deployed 4,000 police officers to execute raids on bus and train stations and has long promoted anti-immigrant legislation. In the United Kingdom, led by the pseudo-progressives of the Labour Party, he celebrated a “record” number of raids on manicure establishments, laundries and hairdressers. In Belgium, the government is considering allowing police to search homes. And Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is the vanguard of the outsourcing of deportation, under the aegis of the President of the European Commission, Ursula von del Leyen, who pushed for the creation of transitory prisons in Albania.
Pedro Sánchez does not alter the rule
President Pedro Sanchez (PSOE) takes some partial measures that are strictly aligned to the dominant dynamics and critical of Trump. However, do not be fooled, his party is a pillar of the regime of ’78 molded by Francoism with a racist stamp, does not question European regulations, has agreements with the Kingdom of Morocco to stop immigration in that country and repress on the Spanish southern border, which is the entrance to Europe, as did the forces of both countries murdering more than 40 people at the border of Melilla, keeps in force the nefarious Law on Foreigners and also performs hot returns. The migrant quotas it allows are based on the need for cheap labor to maintain the pension funds. He does so because his government is highly questioned, he needs to recover the sectors that have distanced themselves and he intends to head an international “progressive” front with other reformists.
In short, reactionary, discriminatory and human rights-violating practices are not only the heritage of ultra-nationalist governments, but also of liberals and those who falsely call themselves “socialists” and “leftists”.
Mass mobilizations in the U.S. and the U.K.
The course of European imperialisms walks in the shadow of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) whose actions are known for their racist measures and the inhuman brutality of its agents. But this is not the only face of the growing political and social polarization sweeping the world.
Trump is checkmated by the mobilizations. Hundreds of thousands of people staged a new wave of mobilizations across the United States, articulated around the “No Kings” movement, deploying some 3,300 marches in large, medium-sized cities and rural areas. This is the third major national rally since 2025 The massive marches, with chants, costumes and posters reflected the backlash against Trump as a phenomenon that transcends large urban centers and reaches even traditionally conservative states.
The causes of the outburst are linked to the authoritarian and warlike turn of the Trump administration: the intensive use of executive orders to bypass Congress, military interventions in Palestine and Iran, immigration repression – with raids, deportations and police abuses – and an economic policy that aggravates the cost of living crisis. Trump is a monster that must be defeated!
And in the United Kingdom, which is extra-EU, half a million people mobilized in the streets of London against the advance of the extreme right and the wars in Iran and Gaza. The central slogans combined the rejection of racism and Islamophobia, the defense of refugees and a strong denunciation of far-right figures such as Nigel Farage (Reform UK), together with criticism of reactionary agitators and the role of Western powers in international conflicts.
The mobilization also questioned the government of the Labor Party headed by Keir Starmer, accusing them of abandoning their historical principles and of showing complicity or passivity in the face of the US and Israeli offensives in the Middle East.In this context, the protest expressed not only a rejection of the ultra-right, but also a growing rupture with Laborism, which sectors of the left hold responsible for not offering a real alternative in the face of the reactionary advance.
Unity mobilized for human and democratic rights
The reactionary leap in EU and other European governments takes the program and measures of the ultra-right, that is why we reject the Return Regulation, the Asylum and Migration Pact and any policy of externalization of borders, detention and deportation of migrants. No person is illegal!
We defend the opening of borders, the full right to migrate, to asylum, the closing of detention centers and the immediate end of hot returns. We fight for the repeal of reactionary laws and for the recognition of all political, social and labor rights for migrants, on equal terms with the native working class. Papers for all now!
We push for the broadest unity of action to confront these policies in the streets, promoting the independent organization of workers, migrants and refugees. Only through massive and sustained mobilization will it be possible to defeat this reactionary offensive. We need an intercontinental movement in defense of the rights of migrants!
Socialism or barbarism: for a world without frontiers
The root of these policies lies in a capitalist system in crisis that needs to divide the working class to sustain its profits. That is why the struggle against racism, deportations and “Fortress Europe” is inextricably linked to the fight for a socialist solution, based on international solidarity and workers’ government. Socialism or barbarism is becoming an increasingly present dilemma that requires fighting for a world without borders.
