Mayor explains why Villamalea unanimously backed call to regularise undocumented migrants – across party lines
Flanked by farmland and nestled among the deep valleys of central Spain, few in Villamalea, a town of 4,200 people, expected to find their tranquil home splashed across Spanish media this summer.
“I’ve never been contacted by so many media outlets in my life,” said José Núñez Pérez, the conservative mayor of Villamalea. With a laugh, he added: “It made me question, just what have we done here?”
Everyone wanted to speak to him about the same thing; a town council motion, approved unanimously and across party lines, calling on the central government to push forward with a stalled proposal to regularise undocumented migrants in Spain.
“To us, it was the most natural thing in the world,” explained Núñez Pérez, as he paused to greet residents in the town’s central plaza. In recent decades, migrants from across the globe had been atrracted to Villamalea for the many jobs on offer.
