Spain’s Socialist Government Fast-Tracks Legal Status for 500,000 Illegal Immigrants

Spain’s socialist-led government has announced plans to grant legal status to about half a million illegal immigrants.

The proposal, presented on Jan. 27, would allow about 500,000 illegal immigrants already living and working in Spain to get legal status through an accelerated process.

The draft decree would significantly expand access to residence permits and would not require parliamentary approval.

“Thousands of migrant people in this country work without rights in exploitative conditions. Not having [legal status] papers is capitalism’s way, in this time, to continue slavery in the 21st century. That’s why this regularization is pure social justice,” Podemos, one of the left-wing parties of Spain, stated on X on Jan. 26.

Migration Minister Elma Saiz told a press conference that illegal immigrants who have lived in Spain for at least five months as of the end of 2025 and who have no criminal record would be eligible for the new permits.

“A measure long worked on, discussed, and necessary to respond to a reality that exists on our streets and that has an impact on coexistence and the economy,” she said in a post on X.

The scheme would also apply to illegal immigrants who applied for asylum before the end of the year but whose claims are still pending.

Spain has experienced large-scale immigration in recent years. Over the past two years, Spain’s immigrant population has increased sharply, with net external immigration exceeding 600,000 in 2024 alone, according to the Spanish National Statistics Institute.

Estimates suggest that there were about 686,000 illegal immigrants in Spain in early 2023, rising toward 840,000 by 2025, although precise figures vary because illegal immigrants aren’t fully captured in official registries.

According to Spanish think tank Funcas, Spain recorded the second-highest number of first-time asylum applications in the European Union in 2024, accounting for about 164,000 claims, or 18 percent of the bloc’s total of nearly 1 million applications.

Germany remained the top destination, receiving roughly one in four asylum applications across the EU.

Spain’s asylum seeker pool is different from that of several other EU countries.

Northern European states have received large numbers of applicants from the Middle East, while Spain has become a major destination for those from Latin America.

According to Funcas data, Venezuelans accounted for about 40 percent of first-time asylum applications in Spain, followed by Colombians at 24 percent. Peruvians represented a smaller share, about 6 percent.

Tens of thousands of migrants from West Africa and sub-Saharan Africa have been arriving illegally in recent years via sea and land routes to Spain, according to ACAPS, a humanitarian analysis organization that tracks displacement and immigration trends.

ACAPS stated that between January 2024 and June 2024, sea arrivals through the Western Mediterranean route numbered nearly 25,000, representing a 96 percent increase compared to the same period in 2023. Most are from West Africa, and the majority reach the Canary Islands.

The government’s plan has drawn criticism from the opposition.

Santiago Abascal, leader of right-wing party Vox, said that the proposal would act as a “pull factor” for illegal immigration.

In a post on X, Abascal said that Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez was encouraging illegal immigration and that the decree would “accelerate” illegal arrivals. Abascal opposed the measure and called for repatriation and deportation.

Mainstream conservative opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said he would overturn such policies if his People’s Party wins the next general election.

“In socialist Spain, illegality is rewarded,” Feijoo was quoted as saying in El País, a Madrid newspaper, on Jan. 26.

The campaign for the measure began with a 2024 petition that received more than 600,000 signatures, backed by a number of nongovernmental organizations and Spain’s Catholic Episcopal Conference.

In a recent statement, Catholic leaders in Spain said the move was “an act of social justice.”

Private visa-processing and immigration services company VisaHQ stated that Spain’s government has opted for a Royal Decree to bypass the risk of parliamentary gridlock after similar attempts stalled.

It stated that employers’ associations have largely expressed support for the decree, citing labor shortages in agriculture, hospitality, logistics, and elder care.

Reuters contributed to this report.