Mexican President Denounces Az Law Despite Laws Against Illegal Immigration in his Own Country

[Geee]

CNSnews:


Mexican President Denounces Arizona Law Despite Laws Against Illegal Immigration in His Own Country
Thursday, May 20, 2010
By Penny Starr, Senior Staff Writer


At a May 19, 2010 press conference in the White House Rose Garden, President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon both criticized the new illegal immigration law in Arizona. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – At a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon criticized Arizona’s new law against illegal immigration.

Calderon, through a translator, called the law “discriminatory,” while Obama said the wording of the law was “troublesome” and could lead to innocent people being “harassed or arrested.”

“I think the Arizona law has the potential of being applied in a discriminatory fashion,” Obama said. He said a “fair reading of the language of the statute” raises the possibility that individuals suspected of being in the country illegally could be “harassed or arrested.”

Calderon said while he remains “respectful of the internal policies of the United States,” he firmly rejects criminalizing “migration” so that “people who work and provide things for this nation (USA) will be treated as criminals.”

In Calderon’s Mexico, however, illegal immigration is punished with fines and deportations.

President Obama -- who took only two questions from foreign journalists at the press conference -- said he has asked the Justice Department to examine the Arizona immigration law for possible civil rights violations. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
“I know that we share the interest in promoting dignified, legal and orderly living conditions to all migrant workers,” Calderon said through a translator in his prepared remarks. “Many of them, despite their significant contribution to the economy and to the society of the United States, still live in the shadows, and occasionally, as in Arizona, they even face discrimination.”

Obama -- who only took two questions, both from foreign journalists -- said he has asked the Justice Department to look into the Arizona law. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Judiciary Committee he had not read the law that Obama and members of his administration have denounced since it was signed by Arizona governor Jan Brewer on April 23.

The two leaders’ criticism comes despite revisions to the Arizona law that expressly prohibit police from racial profiling.

The revised Arizona law specifically states that a person’s immigration status can be checked only if an individual is stopped for some other, valid reason. “A lawful stop, detention or arrest must be in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state,” the revised law says.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has not only criticized the Arizona law but has threatened to boycott Arizona. The immigration laws in Mexico, however, are stricter in some ways than U.S. immigration laws. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
By contrast, Mexican immigration law, revised in 2009, gives Mexican officials the right to check people’s immigration status, and if someone is found to be in the country illegally, they can be fined and deported. The law also requires foreigners to register with the government.

[Argyle58]

Calderone's interest in U.S. immigration policies is based on national greed. Money sent home by Mexican nationals is the second biggest source of revenue to the Mexican economy, second only to petroleum production.

 

Vincente Fox had the same reaction to proposed U.S. legislation when Bush was president. He actually made the statement that "....there is no such thing as an illegal alien...".

 

Of course, that statement surely isn't true in Mexico. Funny thing is that the Mexican government revised their own immigration policies in 2009 and added measures similar to the Arizona law, and for the same reasons. Guatemalans crossing Mexico's southern border illegally, placing a drain on public services and causing an increase in crime.

 

Go figure.

[SrWoodchuck]

Geee! Thanks for the post.

 

An interview on CNN with Wolf Blitzer, just a little later, shows Calderone befuddled & grasping. I'm not a huge Blitzer fan, but he seemed to be getting into skewering Mexico's Presidente.

 

A little under ten minutes of journalistic dissection, that had Wolf acting more like a shark.

 

 

Felipe & the Wolf

 

 

Edited to add: OK....2 minutes of blah, blah, blah, by O"blah"ma & 8 minutes of skewering