Background
Hortefeux was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine but was raised in Auvergne. He is one of the most loyal political allies, and personal friend, of French president Nicolas Sarkozy. He is the godfather of one of Nicolas Sarkozy's sons.
On 18 May 2007, he was appointed as the first Minister of Immigration, Integration, National Identity and Cooperative Development in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon. As such he has boosted the numbers of illegal immigrants forcibly repatriated from France, extended the network of detention centres (established also outside the larger conurbations in smaller cities such as Blois) and modified the rights of individuals and organizations which visit them.
He is in favor of controls on immigration. He was the promoter of a law that toughens conditions of political asylum in France. He believes that France has a right to expel or welcome immigrants on a discretionary basis, citing as evidence the high unemployment and criminality rates of foreigners. He also points to the geographical concentration of foreigners in a small amount of towns as evidence that they are not integrated in the country. As he declared in the newspaper Le Parisien on the 8 November 2007: « France has the right to choose which immigrants it can accommodate.» « Let's muster the courage to face our problems! Do you find it normal that 60% of immigrants are concentrated in only 3 of our 22 regions ? That the unemployment rate of these people is 22% and that their children are dropping out of school ? No, we will not accept this. ".
On M6's TV show Capital, when asked if there were illegal immigrants in France, he replied: "If you dream of a country where there are only honest and clean citizens In reality, it's a constant struggle."
The 4 June 2010 a French court has fined him 750 euros for making racist comments about a young party activist of Algerian origin.But the court did not issue a criminal conviction, judging that Mr Hortefeux had not intended the comments to be heard in public.
In August 2010 following an earlier fatal incident involving travellers and gendarmerie at Thésée, near St. Aignan, Loir et Cher, Hortefeux has vigorously pursued a policy of destroying illegal travellers' camps and imposing conditions for voluntary repatriations of Roms (or Gypsies) to Romania and Bulgaria, a considerable number of which are in progress. A circular emanating from his office (chef de cabinet: Michel Bart) on 5 August 2010, specifically mentioning an ethnic criterion for these deportations provoked the ire of ministerial colleagues such as Eric Besson and the European commissioner, Viviane Reding. An eirenic exchange with Cardinal André Vingt-Trois,the President of the French Bishops' Conference, representing contrasting reactions within the Catholic community, also ensued.
Read more about this topic: Brice Hortefeux
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