Italy coming down hard on illegals

The Spanish news is reporting that Berlusconi's government yesterday proposed a law to make it a crime to live in Italy illegally. If the Italian Parliament approves the law, illegal immigrants in Italy could be jailed for six months to four years. This differs from the normal practice of simply expelling or deporting immigrants.

In addition, the government has decided to apply stricter penalties to illegal immigrants who commit crimes and to increase the maximum detention time (prior to deportation) to 18 months (previously two months in Italy).

The European Union as a whole is currently debating the amount of time illegals should be detained before being deported back to their home countries. The proposed amount of time is (like Italy) 18 months. If approved, every member country of the EU would have the right to hold illegals for up to 18 months while arranging for their deportation.