MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina to toughen immigration rules

“We want to continue welcoming those who come to build a freer and more prosperous country,” Adorni insisted

Argentina's Presidential Spokesman Manuel Adorni, who is campaigning to become a lawmaker in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires' elections next Sunday, has announced that the Javier Milei administration plans to introduce stricter immigration requirements to curb State spending on illegal aliens.

 The head of State is drafting a decree providing for the:

· Deportation of all immigrants convicted of crimes, regardless of sentence length.

· Immediate expulsion for those entering illegally or caught in the act.

· Stricter conditions for residency and citizenship, with two years of continuous residence without leaving the country needed to access these benefits.

· Charges for foreigners using public health and education services (immigrants must have medical insurance to cover healthcare costs).

· Public universities can apply charges to foreign students

· The Rejection of convicted individuals at border checkpoints

Adorni also noted that 1.7 million illegal immigrants entered in the last 20 years, costing billions of pesos annually in healthcare alone. He emphasized fairness for law-abiding immigrants and aims to make Argentina a “promised land” for those who contribute legally.

“All those convicted of committing a crime will be deported,” Adorni explained. “Today, almost anyone enters without any questions asked, and the conditions of deportation are very flexible,” he added.

In addition, “Argentina does not expel those who break the law, either,” so “criminals enter, continue committing crimes and nobody does anything; with this government, that will end,” Adorni pledged.

In an announcement that was widely interpreted as a campaign speech, Adorni also addressed the so-called “health tours” by nationals of bordering nations, “who come to use free public services that they do not have in their countries and that they did not contribute, with their taxes, to finance.” He also noted that these people “immediately return to their place of origin” after completing their treatments.

He also underscored that convicted foreigners allowed into Argentina represented a threat to law-abiding residents. “From now on, any convicted person who tries to enter will be rejected at the borders by the immigration authorities, and those who are found in flagrante delicto, entering through unauthorized passages, will be immediately expelled,” he stressed.

In addition, “there are very many good immigrants who come to work and to forge their future,” so “it is not fair for them that we allow those who do not comply with the same rules to remain in our territory outside the law,” the Spokesman also pointed out.

“As we did in our origins, we want to continue welcoming those who come to build a freer and more prosperous country, within the framework of the law,” he insisted.