The proposal made by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) to deport non-convicted members of criminal clans is already encountering resistance within the coalition. A corresponding regulation is out of the question for the Greens, as their parliamentary secretary Irene Mihalic made clear.
“It is clear that regulations outside the rule of law are never up for debate for us Greens. This also applies to measures that treat relatives of criminals who have not been convicted of a criminal offense in the same way as criminals,” said Mihalic, who is herself an interior expert, to the editorial network Germany. The coalition has agreed to reform the deportation practice and make it more effective. “We expect concrete, reliable proposals from the responsible interior minister.”
A Ministry discussion paper provides that deportation should already be possible if facts justify the conclusion that someone was or is part of a criminal organization. A ministry spokesman explained on Monday that a deportation according to such a regulation requires a clear connection to criminal activities. A family membership in the clan alone is not enough.
Union politicians classified the idea as an election campaign maneuver by Faeser. The Federal Minister is the SPD’s top candidate for the Hessian state elections on October 8th. “This is just an announcement for the Hessian election campaign. I think there will be little left of it in concrete substance,” said CDU domestic politician Philipp Amthor on the Welt television station.
Police union welcomes Faeser’s proposal
North Rhine-Westphalia’s CDU Interior Minister Herbert Reul, who is considered a hardliner when it comes to clans, made a similar statement: “If the Federal Interior Minister wanted to make real progress, she would initiate a proper legislative process instead of publishing collections of ideas on a website,” he said Picture-Newspaper. Amthor pointed out that it is already difficult to enforce deportations due to the lack of readmission agreements with the countries of origin. Of course it would be good to get better, but above all “the faucet of uncontrolled immigration must be turned off,” he said.
The chairman of the police union (GdP) for the federal police, Andreas Roßkopf, welcomed Faeser’s proposal and called for further tightening. There is not enough progress in the negotiations on readmission agreements. The Rheinische Post he said: “Criminal offenders should also be able to be deported to third countries that are willing to take them in if the home countries block themselves. Family members of intensive offenders should then be deported at the same time if they have followed the offender by family reunification and are financially dependent on him.”