Report: Italian govt. turns xenophobic

ROME, May 24 (UPI) -- The head of the Northern League, a key player in returning Silvio Berlusconi to power in Italy, is pushing an anti-immigrant drive, a published report said.

Umberto Bossi is in Berlusconi's cabinet. His party has four seats under the new prime minister, including the ministry of the interior, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

"All Gypsies must go," Davide Boni, a Northern League member and regional official, told the Times in an interview.

Boni said the league advocates reducing immigration to no more than 10 percent of its current level to facilitate integration of immigrants into Italian society. The group would like to keep most Romanians out, not just Roma or Gypsies, and would like to bar legal entry to Muslims as well.

An immigration plan introduced to the cabinet this week would subject illegal immigrants to four-year prison sentences, allow property rented to illegal immigrants to be confiscated and quadruple the waiting time for non-citizens who marry Italians to become citizens.