Weekly Report - 15 July 2010 (WR-10-28)

MEXICO | Immigration. Mexico's foreign minister, Patricia Espinosa, said on 13 July that other Latin American governments had followed Mexico's lead in taking court action against a controversial Arizona law, SB1070, designed to curb illegal migration. The US government is also going to court to try to get SB1070, which is due to come into force on 29 July, overturned. This move has been heavily criticised by Democrat Party governors in the US, who claim that it could cost the Democrats control of congress in the forthcoming mid-term elections in November.
Espinosa said that Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Paraguay had joined the legal action being led by Mexico. In June, Mexico filed an Amicus Curiae application in the federal court for the district of Arizona, which means that Mexico stands ready to provide evidence to the court when the case comes to trial. The legal action against SB1070 was launched by human rights organisations in the US. 
Separately, a list of 1,300 names and addresses of alleged illegal (Hispanic) immigrants has been sent to the police and media in Utah. If the list had been sent out in Arizona once SB1070 became law, the police would have been obliged to act on the information. The Utah list apparently even contained people's social security numbers and information that some of the alleged illegal migrants were pregnant and so should be “priorities" for deportation.

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