Key figures — as of 2026-08-10: Detention for irregular migrants would rise from a current 60-day cap to as much as 360 days under the proposed law — President António José Seguro sent the bill to the Constitutional Court on 7 August 2026 for preventive review before it can be enacted — the government cites a deportation execution rate below 5%, among the lowest in Europe — Cabinet approved the text on 19 March 2026, meaning it has spent nearly five months moving through Lisbon's institutions without becoming law.
A "last major piece" of legislation that keeps getting delayed
The government's so-called lei do retorno — its plan to speed up the removal of foreigners in irregular status — is still not in force, nearly a year after officials first promised to send it to parliament. Parliament received "soon" a proposal from the Executive to "reconfigure" the return regime for immigrants, arguing that "quem não cumpre as regras tem de ser afastado eficazmente do território nacional." That was late November 2025. Cabinet only approved the actual text on 19 March 2026, when the Government approved a new draft law reinforcing and accelerating the coercive removal regime for irregular migrants, which then moved to the Assembly of the Republic.
Since then the bill has bounced between committee rooms without a final green light. On 15 May, the proposal went to specialty debate in parliament without being voted on by the plenary, amid criticism from the left over tightened asylum rules. Days earlier, judges on the Conselho Superior dos Tribunais Administrativos e Fiscais rejected the government's proposals in a unanimous negative opinion — though, as commentators noted, that opinion isn't binding and Parliament can choose whether to follow it.
Now stuck at the Constitutional Court
Parliament eventually did pass a version of the law — but the story doesn't end there. On 7 August, President Seguro used his preventive-review power to send the decree to the Constitutional Court rather than sign it. His concerns, reported the same week, centre on the increase in detention periods at reception centres for migrants entering illegally — from two months to one year — plus doubts about the deportation of minors and shortened appeal windows. The president still acknowledges the need to fight illegal immigration and secure borders, while insisting on the dignity of anyone seeking to come to Portugal.
That referral means the judges of the Palácio Ratton, not the government, now decide the law's fate — with no fixed deadline for a ruling.
What the bill would actually change
On paper, the reform is substantial. It ends the 20-day "voluntary abandonment" notice period, reduces judicial appeal options, and raises the maximum detention period to 360 days from the current 60. It would also strip appeals of their suspensive effect on deportation — except in international-protection cases — to reduce the "delaying impact of judicial mechanisms." One earlier idea — a 20-year re-entry ban for deportees — didn't survive: the Government dropped the proposed 20-year entry ban, with the text sent to Parliament keeping the current regime of up to five years, extendable in cases of serious threat to public order.
The government's justification rests on one number: Portugal's return rate has been among the lowest in Europe, below 5%, because the existing law doesn't allow detentions to be maintained or return decisions to be enforced.
The human cost of the wait
The delay isn't abstract for people already caught in the system. Following one large boat arrival, once the 60-day limit for holding people in PSP-run temporary centres expired, migrants were released and placed under Social Security's care in guesthouses — and many disappeared without a trace. That's precisely the outcome ministers say the new law is meant to prevent, yet it's happening under the current rules, which remain in force while the bill sits with the judges.
GrowIN's read on the numbers
By our count, the return law has now spent roughly 145 days in the legislative pipeline since Cabinet approval alone — and closer to 250 days since officials first promised it publicly in November 2025. Either way, the bill has already outlasted the very 60-day detention cap it was designed to replace by a factor of four or more. "A law built to speed up removals has itself become the slowest-moving piece of Portugal's migration overhaul," as GrowIN Portugal Editorial puts it.
What to watch next
The Constitutional Court has no statutory deadline for this kind of preventive review, though similar cases have taken weeks rather than months. If judges strike down provisions — as they did with parts of the earlier immigration and nationality laws — the government will need to redraft and resubmit, pushing any real change well into 2027. Until then, AIMA and the PSP's border unit continue operating under the existing 60-day framework; anyone facing a removal order should get case-specific legal advice rather than assume new rules apply. For a fuller picture of how residence status and enforcement interact, see our visas hub.
Foreigners living in Portugal without full legal status remain exactly where they were in March: waiting on a law that keeps promising speed and keeps delivering the opposite.