Judges at the Ratton Palace announced their decision on the last day of the urgent 15-day deadline requested by the President of the Republic. The PSD and Chega parties will have to find an alternative to get the bill approved.
The President of the Republic had requested an inspection of the diploma, raising doubts about the issue of family reunification.
The Constitutional Court rejected the Foreigners Law approved by the National Assembly, after the President of the Republic sent the document to the Ratton Palace, declaring some of the rules contained in the document unconstitutional.
According to the decision, which was announced on Friday afternoon, the law presented by the Government will have to be redone, in a diploma that aims to regulate the legal regime for the entry, stay, exit and removal of foreigners from the national territory.
The decree was approved on July 16 in the Assembly of the Republic, with favorable votes from PSD, Chega and CDS-PP, abstention from IL and votes against from PS, Livre, PCP, BE, PAN and JPP.
The legislation was criticized by almost all parties, with the exception of PSD, Chega and CDS-PP, with several considering it unconstitutional and criticizing the way in which the legislative process was carried out, without consulting immigrant associations or constitutionalists and with the absence of mandatory opinions.
In the request sent by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to the Constitutional Court, the President of the Republic requested preventive review of the constitutionality of the rules on the right to family reunification and the conditions for its exercise, on the deadline for the assessment of requests by the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) and the right to appeal.
The law will now be returned to Parliament for the revision of provisions that violate the Constitution.
Among the rejected provisions are several related to family reunification. The Constitutional Court found that "by not including the spouse or equivalent, it may require the disintegration of the nuclear family of a foreign citizen holding a valid residence permit and is, therefore, likely to lead to the separation of that citizen's family members." The Court considered this a "violation of enshrined rights."
Moments after the court's ruling, the President of the Republic announced that he had vetoed the decree.
The Prime Minister had assured that the government will not "give up on the goal" of regulating immigration. Luís Montenegro stated that if the Constitutional Court judges rejected the law, the government would make adjustments, finding legal solutions.