Latin America: Week in Review, North America
Arizona’s Immigration Law Debated In Federal Appeals Court
November 2, 2010 By Staff
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer at the White House.
Today in Latin America
Top Story — A federal appeals court on Monday said that Arizona may be permitted to require police officers to check the immigration status of suspected criminals, even though they would be powerless do anything about a person’s illegal residency.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals looked at four provisions in Arizona’s controversial immigration bill, SB1070, that was ruled unconstitutional back in July by a federal judge in Phoenix.
During the hour-long proceedings in San Francisco, the three-judge appeals panel seemed to agree with the lower court’s previous rulings, but indicated that it would authorize police the right to check the immigration status of people they reasonably suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
This would also still allow suspects to be referred to federal authorities for deportation.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer and her group of lawyers defended the state’s bill Monday, saying that she will take the matter to the Supreme Court if necessary.
“There’s no reason why Arizona should stand by and suffer the consequences of a broken system, when (it) has 15,000 well-trained peace officers that Washington authorities aren’t allowing to help fix the system. That’s what Arizona wants to do,” said attorney John Bouma, who is representing Arizona, according to Reuters.
Senior 9th Circuit Judge John Noonan asked during the hearing if there was anyway the bill could be tailored so that its enactment was constitutionally sound and he also took issue with part of the law barring work by immigrants while their immigrations status was being determined.
“We are bound by that decision. End of argument,” Noonan said, according to Reuters.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- National Public Radio reported last week that the private prison industry played a key role in the crafting of Arizona’s controversial immigration law. Molly O’Toole, who interviewed Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce before the primary elections, has more.
- Hispanic voices are becoming more influential as the mid-term elections approach, reports Von Diaz.
- Peruvian presidential candidate Ollanta Humala outlined his nationalist program on Thursday in New York, saying it would transform Peru from a mineral exporting country to an industrialized country that privileges the internal market.
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- The family of a man presumed dead after a shooting on a lake on the U.S.-Mexico border plans to hold a memorial service for him in Colorado on Sunday.
- Mexican glass maker Vitro SAB said Monday it has launched two offers–a proposed swap and partial buyback–of three series of defaulted notes for $1.22 billion as it seeks to restructure its debt.
Caribbean
- Cuba will free its longest-held political prisoner, Adrian Álvarez, jailed since 1985, and send him to Spain, the Roman Catholic Church said Monday.
- U.S. health authorities have said that the cholera strain which has killed more than 330 people in Haiti most closely resembles a South Asian strain.
- Tropical Storm Tomas churned through the Caribbean on a path that could batter Haiti with heavy rain and strong wind.
Central America
- Five armed men broke into a military base at the major international airport in northern Honduras early Monday and made off with a small airplane that authorities seized last year in an anti-drug operation.
- The caravan organized by the Honduran Network of Migrants Committees and Relatives of the Missing started its journey in Mexico over the weekend to look for more than 500 Hondurans who went missing here while trying to reach the United States.
- Authorities at a prison in eastern El Salvador discovered a tunnel over the weekend and foiled an escape attempt by gang members, officials said.
- A diverse exhibit of of Cuban culture was exhibited on Friday at the campus of Central American University as part of an annual fair in Managuage, Nicaragua, attended this year by 22 countries.
- After four years of waiting for the government to take action, the surviving victims of tainted cough medicines distributed by the Panamanian government staged protests demanding that those responsible be put on trial and that better health care be provided to the nation.
Andes
- Venezuelan steel products company Sidetur on Monday protested being nationalized by President Hugo Chávez and denied it had ever broken the South American country’s price controls.
- Central Intelligence Agency officers involved with a secret counternarcotics mission in the Peruvian jungle routinely violated agency procedures, tried to cover up their mistakes, and misled Congress immediately after a missionary plane was accidentally shot down in 2001, according to a C.I.A. internal report released on Monday.
Southern Cone
- Brazilian president-elect Dilma Rousseff discussed foreign policy with President Obama and the presidents of Venezuela, Argentina and Mexico a day after she made history by becoming Brazil’s first female president.
- Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner gave her first public address since the sudden death of her husband and former president Néstor Kirchner last Wednesday.
- A woman who claims she was hit by the niece of Paraguayan soccer star Salvador Cabañas while riding her bicycle is suing Cabañas for $500,000.
- Edison Peña, one of the 33 rescued Chilean miners, may participate in the New York City marathon on November 7.
Image: Pete Souza @ Wikicommons.
2 Comments
“Prop. 200”, “House Bill 2013″ and “SB1070″
0 = Arizona
3 = USA/ Our Constitution/ We the People of the United States
We are a country that is ruled by the Constitution (with all Amendments), and the Declaration of Independence, not by the majority of the day. When the uneducated do not know the principles in these documents, therein lays the problem in losing, so no one should be surprised when the dullards lose in court after being smartly challenged.
Last month of October 2010, our Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Arizona’s requirement that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote or the 2004, “Prop. 200”. In the month of July 2010, our U.S. Federal courts have found the so called State of Arizona hate filled legislation namely “House Bill 2013″ and “SB1070″ Un-constitution (So much for the intellect of Jan Brewer, “Did you read the bills you signed?”). But we all know that they will go crying to the Supreme Court of the United States, please, please, please go. We will fight you in Arizona, any other state, and yes in Washington DC. We will not tire, we will not be silent and we will persevere, I promise you.
In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme of clans; the Baggers, Birthers and Blowhards (people who love to push their beliefs and hate on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win in November. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”.
I know the proponents of this law say that the majority approves of these laws, but the majority is not always right. Would women or non-whites have the vote if we listen to the majority of the day, would the non-whites have equal rights (and equal access to churches, housing, restaurants, hotels, retail stores, schools, colleges and yes water fountains) if we listen to the majority of the day? We all know the answer, a resounding, NO! You were all wrong then and you are wrong now!
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened. All of us ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated, but this is not the case.
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics and do what is right, not what is just popular with the majority. Some men comprehend discrimination by never have experiencing it in their lives, but the majority will only understand after it happens to them.
[…] The ruling is the first of its kind in the United States, which has recently seen a series of high-profile battles about state immigration policies including one over Arizona’s strict immigration law. […]
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