Paris, April 23: The French National Assembly has passed a tough immigration reform bill that shortens asylum application deadlines, doubles the time for which illegal migrants can be detained and introduces a one-year prison sentence for entering France illegally. The bill was passed on Sunday by 228 votes to 139, with 24 abstentions, after over 60 hours of debate and hundreds of amendments, the BBC reported on Monday. President Emmanuel Macron’s governing centrist party La République en Marche said the bill will speed up the process of claiming asylum. But opposition figures and human rights groups said the measures go too far. Only one member of Macron’s party, Jean-Michel Clément, voted against the legislation. “I am not sure we’re sending to world citizens the universal message that has always been ours,” he said after the vote. He later announced he was leaving the parliamentary group.