The Arizona-Mexico border at Nogales.
Latin America: Week in Review, Mexico, United States

Mexico Files Brief In U.S. Federal Court Against Arizona Immigration Law

June 24, 2010 By Staff
The Arizona-Mexico border at Nogales.

The Arizona-Mexico border at Nogales.

Today in Latin America

Top Story — The Mexican government asked a U.S. federal court this week to declare Arizona’s new immigration law unconstitutional, stating that Mexico’s interests and its citizens’ rights are at risk and that the law could damage bilateral relations.

The law requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop, if there is reason to suspect that they are undocumented immigrants. The law also restricts the hiring or transportation of day laborers, and allows for lawsuits against government agencies not enforcing immigration laws.

“Mexican citizens will be afraid to visit Arizona for work or pleasure out of concern that they will be subject to unlawful police scrutiny and detention,” said the brief filed by the Mexican government, according to the New York Daily News.

Mexico filed the arguments as a “friend of the court,” or amicus curiae, which means that it is offering a legal opinion, but is not a party in to the case. Mexico does however support the case brought by a group of civil rights organisations, which includes the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

Arizona’s law enjoys popular support throughout Arizona where some residents fear the growing influx of Mexicans across the border, but has been criticized by the Obama administration and governments throughout Latin America.

“Mexico has a duty to protect its citizens and ensure that their ethnic origin is not used as a basis for committing discriminatory acts,” the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement, according to the BBC.

Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch

  • Arizona’s controversial immigration law could face a challenge as early as next week from the Obama administration. Find out more at Alison Bowen’s Beyond Borders blog.
  • Peru has topped Colombia as the world’s largest producer of coca leaf, but Colombia remains the largest manufacturer of cocaine.

Headlines from the Western Hemisphere

North America

Caribbean

Central America

Andes

Southern Cone

  • Mayor Ana Lopes said the entire town of Branquinha (population 12,000) in northeastern Brazil will have to be moved following devastating rains and flooding that have left more than 50 dead and more than 100,000 homeless
  • General Motors announed on Tuesday the creation of a new South American unit, to be based in São Paulo, Brazil, and will operation throughout the continent.
  • Exiled Colombian ex-police officer Juan Carlos Meneses was questioned in Buenos Aires, after saying that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe’s brother led a right-wing paramilitary group in the 1990s.
  • Chilean President Sebastián Piñera’s administration has the lowest approval rating at the start of a new administration since the country returned to democracy in 1990, according to a poll by Centro de Estudios de la Realidad Contempóranea released Wednesday.
  • Creditors have agreed to exchange 66 percent of Argentina’s defaulted bonds for new ones in a debt swap deal worth $12.1 billion, the economy minister said Wednesday.

Image: Allen Ormond @ Flickr.

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5 Comments

[…] ready to go assuming Gov. Jay Nixon signs the bill, or just washes his hands of more… Mexico Files Brief In U.S. Federal Court Against Arizona Immigration Law – Latin America News … – latindispatch.com 06/24/2010 Latin America News DispatchMexico Files Brief In U.S. Federal […]

[…] SB 1070 has already led to several lawsuits filed in federal court arguing that the law is unconstitutional and authorizes racial profiling. In filing the Amicus brief, Mexico agrees, citing imminent “challenges to the bilateral diplomatic relations between Mexico and the U.S,” that will result if the law goes into effect. Mexico fears that millions of legal immigrants will be harassed, arrested and even detained even if they have not broken any laws or otherwise indicated that they should be suspected of committing a crime.  “Mexico has a duty to protect its citizens and ensure that their ethnic origin is not used as a basis for committing discriminatory acts,” the Mexican foreign ministry said in a statement, according to the BBC. […]

[…] Arizona’s law requires police officers to check the immigration status of people they stop, if there is reason to suspect that they are undocumented immigrants. The law also restricts the hiring or transportation of day laborers, and allows for lawsuits against government agencies not enforcing immigration laws. […]

I KEEP WONDERING WHY ALL JOURNALISTS PREFER NOT TO ALSO FIND FAULT WITH MEXICO’S CONGRESS OBVIOUS DISREGARD FOR ALL OF THE MEXICAN CITIZENS WHO ARE FORCED TO LEAVE THEIR COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES. MEXICO’S PRESIDENT PREFERS TO JOIN A LAW SUIT THAT TARGETS IMMIGRANTS AND CHICANOS BUT HE DOES NOT SUE HIMSELF OR HIS CONGRESS (PAN CONTROLLED) FOR NOT IMPLEMENTING A REAL JOBS PROGRAM FOR HIS CITIZENS SO THEY DO NOT HAVE TO SUFFER AT THE HANDS OF GRINGOS. I BELIEVE THAT THE MEXICAN JOURNALISTS ARE BOUGHT TO IGNORE CONGRESSIONAL OBLIGATIONS AND OPT TO LOOK AT THE AMERICAN CONGRESS AS THE BODY MORE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF MEXICAN CITIZENS HOW ABOUT ASSIGNING A REPORTER TO REPORT ON THE MEXICAN REPORTERS WHO NEED TO DO A BETTER JOB!

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