Foreign Residents Who Disturb Public Order at Housing Protests Could Lose Their Permits, the Immigration Secretary of State Tells MPs

Foreign residents who take part in the housing protests and break the Foreigners Law could have their residence permits cancelled, the Government's immigration secretary of state told Parliament on Tuesday. Rui Armindo Freitas, Secretary of State Assistant to the Presidency and for Immigration, made the warning during a committee hearing on the 2027 State Budget, Lusa reported via ECO and Notícias ao Minuto.

The law is "very clear on questions of public security and public order", he said, in a reference to foreign nationals "who are taking some kind of action" in the demonstrations. If the rules are not respected, "naturally the competent authorities will have to do their work".

He drew a line between protesting and disturbing order. Return orders are not what is at stake, he said. "The consequence is the cancellation of residence permits, which can lead to leaving the national territory within 20 days, for everyone who, not because they demonstrate, but because they may put public order at risk," he said, as reported by Observador.

What the law says

The rules are in Lei n.º 23/2007 (the Foreigners Law), as last amended by Lei n.º 62/2026 of 10 September:

• Grounds. Article 85 lists the cases in which a residence permit is cancelled. They include a removal or expulsion decision, a permit obtained by fraud, serious reasons to believe the holder has committed or intends to commit serious crimes, and "reasons of public order or public security" (consolidated text, Portuguese only).
• Who decides. The member of the Government responsible for migration, who can delegate the decision to AIMA's board. AIMA is the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum).
• Notice and appeal. The cancellation must be notified to the person with the grounds for the decision, and the residence card is seized. It can be challenged in the administrative courts, but the challenge does not suspend the decision.
• Leaving. Under Article 138, a foreign national notified that their permit has been cancelled must leave Portugal within the period they are given, of between 20 and 30 days. The PSP's national director can extend it, taking into account how long the person has lived here, children at school, other family members and social ties (consolidated text, Portuguese only).

The Constitution's Article 15 gives foreigners living in Portugal the same rights and duties as Portuguese citizens, with exceptions that include political rights, and Article 45 guarantees the right to meet "peacefully and without weapons" and the right to demonstrate (text on Parliament's website, Portuguese only). The secretary of state himself said that demonstrating is not the ground for cancellation.

We have covered how the courts read AIMA's refusals, including a ruling on Schengen alerts, and the backlog of immigration cases in the administrative courts.

AIMA's budget rises by half

At the same hearing, the Government said AIMA's budget will rise from 97 million to 146 million euros in 2027, an increase of about 50 percent, according to ECO. Freitas said more than 4 million euros will go to digital transformation, 4.2 million to better service at the counter, and about 1.4 million to Portuguese language learning, job training and training for mediators.

The Presidency Minister, António Leitão Amaro, said all of AIMA's measures, more than 100 million euros of spending, are paid for by the fees immigrants pay to live in Portugal: "immigration pays for immigration". The national integration plan, which he said the Government will present "in the coming weeks", will be funded by those fees and by EU migration funds. He gave no figure for it.

Leitão Amaro also said he would oppose any move to keep the children of foreign residents from receiving abono de família (child benefit) in their parents' first years in Portugal, which he attributed to Chega. "A child is a person," he said. A Chega MP, Cristina Rodrigues, replied that the party had never proposed barring them, but wants support for Portuguese children prioritised. The minister said foreigners are about 14 to 15 percent of the population but under 4 percent of those receiving the non-contributory Prestação Social Única (single social benefit), and that for every four euros foreign nationals pay into Social Security, one euro goes out to them.