The French government wants to adopt a new immigration law in 2025, just one year after the previous bill split the majority in the National Assembly. It would be the 33rd immigration law in 44 years.
"There will be a need for a new law," government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told broadcaster BFMTV on Sunday.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier's new government hopes the bill will be submitted to parliament at the beginning of 2025.
In September, a Paris student was raped and murdered in a case that has further inflamed a French debate on migration after a Moroccan man was named as the suspected attacker.
France's interior minister vows to introduce new immigration 'rules' after student murder
In this new text, the government wants to extend the detention period for undocumented migrants deemed to be dangerous in order to better enforce expulsion orders.
Longer period of detention
One of the options under consideration is to increase the maximum period of detention from 90 to 210 days, which is now only possible for terrorist offences.
Last December, France already passed an immigration law.
Macron promulgates controversial new French immigration law
The bill was hardened to gain the support of the far-right and right-wing MPs.
But the country's highest constitutional authority censured most of the new amendments which were dropped before President Emmanuel Macron signed it into law.
The measures struck down by the Conseil Constitutionnel "will serve as a basis for the new immigration bill", said a government source. "Some of them could be modified and there will be additions."
The most hardline member of the government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, has vowed to crack down on immigration. He has stirred controversy just days into the job, saying that "the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred".
Retailleau, who previously headed the Republicans party in the Senate, was seen as the driving force behind the tough legislation last year.
He wants to reinstate the offense of illegal residence, among other measures.
On Monday, he told France Inter that "Nothing is off-limits, no taboos."
'Not a total priority'
Gabriel Attal, Barnier's predecessor and now leader in parliament of Macron's Renaissance party, said that a new law on immigration did not seem a "total priority."
"Adopting a law for the sake of a law makes no sense," he told broadcaster France inter.
He said "the priority is to act so that the state can truly control who enters and leaves" France.
(with AFP)
