Paris, January 23 (RHC)-- In France, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities across the country, urging President Emmanuel Macron to reject a hard-line immigration bill. 

The measure strengthens deportation authority and makes it more difficult for noncitizens to access social welfare and other benefits. The legislation has been widely condemned as anti-immigrant, amid fears of a turn to the far right. 

A migrant worker from Mali at the rally in Paris told reporters: “Myself, for example, I work.  I don’t have social security or anything at all, even though I pay taxes.  This is really difficult.  When we work, we can be mistreated, because we’re afraid to lose the jobs that we have.  And then, when we work, the overtime hours that we do can go unpaid, and we can’t complain.  You complain, you get fired.”