The police unions Spanish Confederation of Police (CEP), Police Justice (Jupol) and Unified Police Union (SUP) have criticized the delegation of powers over immigration to the Generalitat that includes the agreement that the PSOE agreed with Junts along with other concessions, in exchange for allowing the validation of two decrees that were put to a vote yesterday in Congress. The measure would be produced through article 150.2 of the Constitution through a specific organic law for Catalonia and would allow the Government and the Parliament to determine "their own policy" on the matter, according to the independence party.
The CEP has issued a statement in which it assures that the delegation of powers "does not respond to a calm and rigorous process of analysis of needs", and that it has not been proven that "the shared management of migration policies is more effective or will benefit citizens more." Likewise, the union has defended that "the State maintains the exclusive exercise linked to the legal status of the immigrant," after calling "to all powers and institutions to keep this the case."
Jupol has also regretted the decision through another statement, in which they regretted that the measure represents "a new step to complete the departure of the National Police of Catalonia, which they intend to convert into a police force without functions." The Secretary General of Police Justice, Aarón Rivero, has denounced that the agreement reached between Junts and the PSOE is, in his opinion, "the beginning of the dismantling of the National Police in Catalonia and its expulsion from this territory, just as they have done with the Civil Guard in Navarra", and that it is a "decrease in the powers" of the body.
In addition, SUP has requested the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to “defend the National Police over which he exercises command and preserve the powers of the Corps.” In the statement issued by the union, they have demanded the “protection of the European Union” against what they consider “an extreme risk” for the Spanish borders.
The three organizations have stated that the announced measure "responds to the application of a criterion of political convenience" with "political and partisan objectives." Jupol has warned that the pact "is a sample of the spirit that this Government intends to maintain during the legislature and of the damage that this will cause for all national police officers, for the institution and consequently for citizens in general", and added that "if this Government is going to use attacks and contempt for the National Police to please its independentist partners, will always have the opposition" of the union.
SUP has also reiterated its refusal to allow “the dismantling of the National Police” and to protect “the marketing of security powers in exchange for votes.” The union has described the measure as a “regression” and an “almost total disintegration” of the body in Catalonia and has stressed its intention to protect Catalans from what they have considered a “possible sale of their rights.”
Along the same lines, the CEP has warned that the measure "weakens the State again at an exclusive level of jurisdiction due to pure and simple parliamentary arithmetic", and has assured that the pact "will not constitute the last of the demands for the transfer of powers in areas directly or indirectly related to police work in favor of the authorities of Catalonia".
