Overview
- The Supreme Court’s administrative chamber refused on Thursday to impose a precautionary suspension of the government’s April regularization decree, allowing issuance of provisional residence and work permits to continue while legal challenges are resolved.
- The government has reported that more than 90,000 provisional authorizations were delivered before the court published its ruling, and those permits typically carry an initial one-year validity that the court cited as supporting later reversibility.
- The court’s majority based its decision on a specially qualified public interest, saying the measure promotes integration, strengthens Social Security contributions and helps prevent labor exploitation for people who would otherwise remain in irregular status.
- Two magistrates, Wenceslao Olea and Fernando Román, filed a formal dissent arguing the decree functions as an “administrative amnesty,” may conflict with EU migration and return rules, and recommended referring questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
- The dispute remains open: final judicial review could annul the decree and lead to revocation of provisional permits, and the case may yet produce EU-level scrutiny while regional actors including the Comunidad de Madrid and Vox press their objections.