NICE: A French farmer who has become a symbol of Europe’s migrant crisis after helping Africans to slip into the country was given a suspended fine of €3,000 ($3,200) on Friday and said he would never stop assisting those in need.
Cedric Herrou, 37, was convicted for illegally helping migrants across the French-Italian border under the noses of the French police.
The sentence is far lighter than the eight-month suspended prison term that prosecutors had requested.
Prosecutors had also wanted his vehicle to be confiscated and restrictions placed on his driving license limiting him to using it for his work. The court rejected both requests.
Herrou was unrepentant after the verdict, saying migrants from poor countries still needed his help and that he would continue to give it.
“We will continue to act and neither the threats of officials or one or two politicians will stop us,” he told a small crowd of supporters outside the court building in Nice.
“It will only be a victory when we do not have to do this anymore and I can go back to my normal life and my work,” he added.
Herrou was found not guilty of putting up around 50 migrants from Eritrea in an abandoned holiday camp.
At his trial last month, he said he was compelled to help migrants “because it has to be done... Families are suffering.”
His lawyer Zia Oloumi said the verdict was “fair,” adding: “This shows that the court understood that he was acting for humanitarian reasons.”
Herrou also defended his decision to put up five minors — a Sudanese youth and four Eritreans — at his home, saying it was up to local officials “to face up to their responsibilities.”
He is one of several people to appear in court in southern France recently charged with illegally assisting migrants who have traveled up through Europe after crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats.
Their cases have pitched the spirit of solidarity against the letter of the law at a time when border controls and migration have become hot issues in the run-up to this year’s presidential and legislative elections in France.
On January 7, a court acquitted researcher Pierre-Alain Mannoni, who had faced a six-month suspended jail sentence for aiding Eritrean migrants who entered France from Italy.
France has accepted relatively few migrants compared with the 900,000 taken in by Germany in 2015, but many travel though the country, often on their way to attempt to reach Britain or other countries in northern Europe.
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French farmer given suspended fine for helping migrants
French farmer given suspended fine for helping migrants
Trump administration expands ICE authority to detain refugees
- Under US law, refugees must apply for lawful permanent resident status one year after their arrival in the country
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has given immigration officers broader powers to detain legal refugees awaiting a green card to ensure they are “re-vetted,” an apparent expansion of the president’s wide-ranging crackdown on legal and illegal immigration, according to a government memo.
The US Department of Homeland Security, in a memo dated February 18 and submitted in a federal court filing, said refugees must return to government custody for “inspection and examination” a year after their admission into the United States.
“This detain-and-inspect requirement ensures that refugees are re-vetted after one year, aligns post-admission vetting with that applied to other applicants for admission, and promotes public safety,” the department said in the memo.
Under US law, refugees must apply for lawful permanent resident status one year after their arrival in the country. The new memo authorizes immigration authorities to detain individuals for the duration of the re-inspection process.
The new policy is a shift from the earlier 2010 memorandum, which stated that failure to obtain lawful permanent resident status was not a “basis” for removal from the country and not a “proper basis” for detention.
The DHS did not respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
The decision has prompted criticism from refugee advocacy groups.
AfghanEvac’s president Shawn VanDiver called the directive “a reckless reversal of long-standing policy” and said it “breaks faith with people the United States lawfully admitted and promised protection.”
HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said the “move will cause grave harm to thousands of people who were welcomed to the United States after fleeing violence and persecution.” Under President Donald Trump, the number of people in ICE detention reached about 68,000 this month, up about 75 percent from when he took office last year.
Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda was a potent campaign issue that helped him win the 2024 election.
A US judge in January temporarily blocked a recently announced Trump administration policy targeting the roughly 5,600 lawful refugees in Minnesota who are awaiting green cards.
In a written ruling, US District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis said federal agents likely violated multiple federal statutes by arresting some of these refugees to subject them to additional vetting.
The US Department of Homeland Security, in a memo dated February 18 and submitted in a federal court filing, said refugees must return to government custody for “inspection and examination” a year after their admission into the United States.
“This detain-and-inspect requirement ensures that refugees are re-vetted after one year, aligns post-admission vetting with that applied to other applicants for admission, and promotes public safety,” the department said in the memo.
Under US law, refugees must apply for lawful permanent resident status one year after their arrival in the country. The new memo authorizes immigration authorities to detain individuals for the duration of the re-inspection process.
The new policy is a shift from the earlier 2010 memorandum, which stated that failure to obtain lawful permanent resident status was not a “basis” for removal from the country and not a “proper basis” for detention.
The DHS did not respond to a Reuters request for comment outside regular business hours.
The decision has prompted criticism from refugee advocacy groups.
AfghanEvac’s president Shawn VanDiver called the directive “a reckless reversal of long-standing policy” and said it “breaks faith with people the United States lawfully admitted and promised protection.”
HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, said the “move will cause grave harm to thousands of people who were welcomed to the United States after fleeing violence and persecution.” Under President Donald Trump, the number of people in ICE detention reached about 68,000 this month, up about 75 percent from when he took office last year.
Trump’s hard-line immigration agenda was a potent campaign issue that helped him win the 2024 election.
A US judge in January temporarily blocked a recently announced Trump administration policy targeting the roughly 5,600 lawful refugees in Minnesota who are awaiting green cards.
In a written ruling, US District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis said federal agents likely violated multiple federal statutes by arresting some of these refugees to subject them to additional vetting.
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