Spain: 1.3M unauthorized migrants flood system after prime minister fast-tracks mass amnesty
OAN Staff Lillian Mann
2:23 PM – Tuesday, June 30, 2026
The Spanish government has received more than one million applications from undocumented migrants seeking legal status in Spain, doubling the anticipated number of the socialist immigration program.
In January, Socialist Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sánchez rolled out a mass regulation scheme designed to grant legal status to around 500,000 undocumented individuals. Instead, the program exploded, receiving over one million applicants by the time the deadline closed on Tuesday.
The program offers legal residency and a work permit valid for one year to applicants who do not have a criminal record and have lived in Spain for at least five months, or had obtained international protection (legal status granted by the government who are fleeing their home country for their safety) before December 31, 2025.
However, the program attracted more than twice the number of applicants by the time the registration period ended on Tuesday. Data from the Mercurio platform, Spain’s official online portal for immigration and residency procedures, shows up to 1.3 million people have applied to the scheme, though not all will be accepted.
The regularization is strictly for undocumented people; if applicants hold any type of valid residence or stay authorization they cannot access the process. However, if they are accepted, individuals can work legally in Spain immediately after their application is processed.
According to officials, more than 900,000 people applied by mid-June, with roughly 360,000 already receiving provisional work and residence permits.
“The more than one million applications submitted…show how necessary this recognition of rights and responsibilities was,” Sánchez said on Tuesday in Madrid, adding that Spain needed immigration to grow economically to assist in its demographic crisis and to finance its welfare state.
“Without immigration, Spain’s GDP would be 19% lower in 2050,” he continued. “And what does that mean in business terms? It means, for example, that 90,000 bars would have to close, that 50,000 primary and secondary classrooms would find themselves without students, and that around 220,000 farms would disappear.”
“When we condemn a person to invisibility, I think we make our country a worse country. We all lose. We want the world to view Spain as a country that respects, protects and upholds human rights,” he continued.
Although similar regularization programs have been implemented by previous governments in Spain, the latest program launched by Sánchez has been met with fierce criticism from the People’s Party (PP) and the Vox Party, which are right-wing groups in Spain.
The PP has warned that the move will overwhelm Spain’s public services, while Vox has claimed that Sánchez is attempting to implement “the demographic, social, labor and electoral transformation of Spain.”
The local governments of Valencia and Aragón, which are run by the PP, have challenged the program in court. On Tuesday, the court said it was considering asking the European Court of Justice if aspects of the program go against European Union rules.
The leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, heavily criticized Sánchez in a radio interview on Monday, saying the prime minister was engaging in “electoral engineering” in an effort to secure more votes from socialists.
“What’s behind this [regularization decree] is an obvious interest in getting new voters,” Feijóo told Es Radio. “Seeing as the current voters aren’t working out, let’s see if manufacturing [new] voters pans out.”
The Spanish government staunchly denied Feijóo’s accusations, saying that his claims were made out of desperation.
Sánchez maintained that without more immigration, Spain would be “poorer, emptier, weaker and without the resources to fund its welfare state.”
“I find them incredibly irresponsible,” said Elma Saiz, Spain’s minister for inclusion, social security and migration. “They demonstrate the desperation and frustration of someone who has no political project for our country and who already seems to sense an electoral defeat.”
Many applicants come from North African countries, with Moroccans accounting for about 14% of all applications. Colombians make up the largest group of applicants, representing roughly 30% of the total, according to LBC.
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