This paper argues in favor of a rethinking of how the status of migrants in an irregular situation is tackled. The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants mentions numerous times the need to facilitate and ensure safe, orderly and regular migration.1 It is laws, however, which create irregularity. In particular, when such laws are applied at the border, migration often becomes unsafe and disorderly as proven by the hundreds of individuals dying when trying to cross borders each year.