Latin America: Week in Review, United States
Arizona’s Jan Brewer To Appeal Immigration Law To U.S. Supreme Court
May 10, 2011 By Staff
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer.
Today in Latin America
Top Story — Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced Monday plans to appeal a ruling against the state’s controversial immigration law to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The state decided to challenge the April ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that blocked the implementation of some parts of the law, including provisions allowing police to check the immigration status of people they’ve stopped while enforcing other laws and requiring immigrants to carry documentation.
“I’ve always known this legal fight would be a long one,” Brewer said. “But now that this is the path we’ve chosen, I am confident Arizona will prevail.”
Arizona’s immigration law, SB1070, went into effect last July 29 and almost immediately sparked outrage in the Hispanic community as well as with pro-immigration groups. An economic boycott against the state of Arizona by immigration activists followed, which cost Arizona more than $140 million, according to an analysis by the Washington-based Center for American Progress.
Brewer decided to take the bill to the Supreme Court instead of lodging a second appeal with the 9th Circuit, because she feels that the high court will resolve the issue quicker. However, the Supreme Court is not expected to decide whether it will hear the case until late September or early October.
The Arizona governor also said that while the legal battle will be costly, Brewer’s office has received $3.7 million in private donations for the bill’s defense.
Along with appeal process, Brewer is also taking the immigration battle to bookstores. She recently inked a deal with HarperCollins to write a memoir that will come out this fall.
Entitled “Scorpions for Breakfast: My Fight Against Special Interests, Liberal Media, and Cynical Politicos to Secure America’s Border,” the 208-page book calls on U.S. President Barack Obama to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and describes what Brewer says she has done to defend her state.
Just Published at the Latin America News Dispatch
- With 10 journalists murdered since 2008, Honduras is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to report. Andrew O’Reilly explains why violence there is soaring in “Who’s Killing the Journalists of Honduras?”
Headlines from the Western Hemisphere
North America
- One Mexican marine and 12 suspected Zeta cartel members were killed in a shootout on a lake along the country’s border with Texas.
- Mexico City will start sending warnings about earthquakes through mobile text messages and social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.
Caribbean
- Cuba’s ruling Communist Party finally published its list of proposed economic reforms on Monday.
- Nearly four months after his shocking return from exile in France, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier — Haiti’s former president-for-life — says he’s home to stay.
- The Government Development Bank for Puerto Rico, facing a possible rating downgrade because of its close links to the ailing commonwealth, plans to sell $500 million of taxable notes this week.
Central America
- A Costa Rican telecommunications company is challenging an agreement between French company Alcatel-Lucent SA and the U.S. government to settle bribery charges.
- A security company led by the former head of operations for the Israeli military made such inroads into Latin America a few years ago that U.S. diplomats saw it as a security risk and moved to thwart the company’s expansion, U.S. diplomatic cables show.
Andes
- Colombia on Monday extradited to Venezuela Walid Makled, a man the White House has called a major drug kingpin, sending him to face trial in the country where he says close associates of President Hugo Chávez were his business partners.
- Blackouts hit nearly half of Venezuela on Monday, prompting government officials to rush engineers to resolve the problems in 11 of the country’s 23 states.
- The U.S. judge who has temporarily blocked enforcement of an $18 billion judgment in Ecuador against Chevron has rejected calls by plaintiffs in that case to recuse himself for bias.
Southern Cone
- A spokesman for CONMEBOL, the South American soccer confederation, denied media reports that its Paraguayan president had requested knighthood from England in exchange for supporting the country’s 2018 World Cup bid, which England lost to Russia.
- A regional environmental panel in Chile will consider whether to approve a $3.2 billion hydroelectric project, called HidroAysen, on the Baker and Pascua rivers south of Santiago.
- In order to attract more foreign investment, Brazil may allow foreigners to lease farmland by loosening property ownership restrictions currently in place.
- Scientists have issued a report in Environmental Biosafety Research that genetically modified maize has contaminated non-GM crops in Uruguay.
Image: @ADLavinsky @ Flickr.
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