Salvini Proposes Points-Based Residence Permits with Automatic Revocation for Offenders

(ROME, ITALY) – Matteo Salvini proposed a points-based residence-permit system on May 17, 2026 that would strip non-EU nationals of legal status and trigger expulsion once they fell below a set score after criminal convictions.

Salvini, Italy’s deputy prime minister and leader of the League party, unveiled the plan at a party event in Rome and cast it as a disciplinary model tied to conduct. Under the proposal, residence permits would work like Italy’s driving license system: permit holders would begin with points, lose them after convictions, and face automatic revocation if their total dropped past a threshold.

“The residence permit is an act of generosity and trust from the Italian people: if that trust is betrayed, the document must be withdrawn. You behave well? You earn points. You cause problems? You lose points and go back to where you came from,” Salvini said on May 17, 2026.

The proposal places a hard administrative consequence at the center of immigration enforcement. Criminal convictions, particularly for “serious crimes,” would trigger automatic deductions, and the loss of enough points would invalidate the permit and start prompt removal proceedings.

That structure has drawn attention beyond Italy because it echoes a broader turn toward automatic penalties in immigration systems, including steps the United States is taking in May 2026. In both countries, officials have tied legal status more closely to preset triggers and reduced room for case-by-case discretion.

In the United States, several provisions of H.R. 1, known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act”, are taking effect in May 2026. One of the clearest examples arrives on May 29, 2026, when DHS plans to implement an interim final rule under which asylum applicants who fail to pay a new recurring annual fee of $102 within 30 days of notice will face automatic rejection of pending applications and revocation of related work authorizations.

DHS set out the enforcement rationale earlier this year. “For too long, a fraudulent asylum claim has been an easy path to working in the United States, overwhelming our immigration system. We are proposing an overhaul of the asylum system to enforce the rules and reduce the backlog. Aliens are not entitled to work while we process their asylum applications.” an official DHS spokesperson said on February 20, 2026.

USCIS added another marker on May 8, 2026, when it issued Policy Alert PA-2026-01, titled “Deferred Action as an Extraordinary Use of Prosecutorial Discretion.” The alert reframed humanitarian protections such as DACA as extraordinary tools rather than broad categories, signaling closer individual scrutiny and a more merit-based approach inside the agency.

The comparison between the two systems is not exact, but the operating logic is close. Salvini’s proposal targets foreign offenders and uses criminal convictions as the trigger for demerit points, while U.S. measures in 2026 focus on non-payment of fees and, in other cases, failure to apply for lawful permanent resident status.

The consequences also differ in form but not in severity. In Italy, the stated end point is revocation of the residence permit and expulsion. In the United States, the result can be revocation of employment authorization documents, rejection of pending cases and, in some circumstances, expedited removal.

The groups exposed to those systems are large. In Italy, the proposal reaches into a labor force that includes 2.3M non-EU workers. In the United States, comparable enforcement shifts touch asylum seekers, refugees and holders of Temporary Protected Status.

Italian critics have focused on whether an automatic system can coexist with European legal standards that require authorities to weigh personal circumstances before removing long-term residents. EU Directive 2003/109/EC requires individual assessment in such cases, and that sets up a legal clash if a permit can disappear mechanically once a points threshold is crossed.

The labor market question is immediate as well. Agriculture and logistics groups in Italy, sectors that employ those 2.3M non-EU workers, have raised concerns that a points-based regime could make legal status more precarious and produce sudden shortages if workers lose permits quickly after a conviction.

Human rights groups have aimed at the same feature that supporters praise: automaticity. They argue that systems built around preset penalties can flatten the difference between a minor infraction and a serious public-safety threat, while reducing the room to consider family ties, time spent in the country and the risk of statelessness in cases tied to citizenship loss.

Salvini framed the issue in terms of reciprocity and public order, a message that fits his long-running politics on migration and border control. The plan also imports the language of earned status into residence rights, making legal stay contingent not only on entry rules and work eligibility but on continued point retention under a state-run scoring model.

That language overlaps with the merit-based vocabulary now appearing more often in U.S. immigration policy documents. American officials have not commented on Salvini’s Italian proposal, but the enforcement measures already scheduled in 2026 show the same preference for predefined consequences, especially where authorities say the system invites weak or fraudulent claims.

Supporters of the Italian proposal are likely to argue that a permit is conditional and should remain so, particularly after criminal conduct. Opponents are likely to answer that residence status, once granted and renewed over time, cannot be reduced to a scorecard without inviting legal challenge under European rules and exposing lawful workers to abrupt removal.

The effect of that debate reaches past criminal law. A points-based permit system would alter how employers view foreign labor, how migrants assess long-term settlement, and how courts weigh automatic administrative sanctions against individual rights. Once a permit can vanish by formula, every deduction carries the weight of possible expulsion.

Official records that frame this wider shift are already public. USCIS has posted updates through its Newsroom, DHS has published related statements through its press releases, Italy’s Interior Ministry, the Viminale, maintains material through interno.gov.it, and the U.S. fee rule appears in the Federal Register under USCIS-2026-0166.

Salvini’s proposal now stands as one of the clearest European examples of an immigration system built around automatic loss. If it advances, courts, employers and migrant families will test whether legal status can be treated like a driving license, with points deducted until the state takes the document back.