Venezuela Slams Arizona’s Illegal Immigration Law, Says America Must Overcome ‘Old Habits of Racism’
By Edwin Mora
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (AP Photo)(CNSNews.com) – Venezuela's minister of foreign affairs said the country’s socialist president, Hugo Chavez, is demanding that Arizona’s law against illegal immigration be “repealed” and that America turn away from its “old habits of racism.”
Not only does Chavez oppose the Arizona law, but Venezuela as a nation wants the United States to “begin to respect and overcome its old habits of racism and contempt" for people from Latin America, Venezuela's information ministry quoted Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro as saying.
Immigrants in the United States, according to Maduro, are treated in a way that is “inconsistent with human rights … a perennial violation against our fellow Latin Americans.”
He said the Arizona law against illegal immigration must be repealed because the measure is disrespectful to human beings "who have only gone to the nation to work to generate wealth."
Maduro made the remarks on May 3 from Buenos Aires, Argentina, before attending a meeting of the 12-member Union of South American Nations. The union as a whole also denounced the Arizona law, calling it racist.
Arizona’s Republican governor, Jan Brewer, signed the legislation (the Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act, Arizona SB 1070) into law on Apr. 23.
The new state law mirrors existing federal law against illegal immigration. It gives Arizona police officers the authority during a lawful stop to check an individual’s immigration status. Federal law already requires that immigrants carry documentation of their status.
If a person were pulled over for speeding, for example, a police officer could demand that the driver show his driver’s license and, if the officer suspects the driver is an illegal immigrant, he could order that person to show proof of his immigration status.
According to one of the drafters of the law, Kris Kobach, a constitutional law professor at the University of Missouri who served as chief adviser to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on immigration law and border security, the Arizona law prohibits racial profiling.
Attorney General Eric Holder. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Section II of the new law states that a law enforcement officer “may not consider race, color or national origin” in making any stops or determining any alien’s immigration status,” said Kobach at a May 5 press conference.
Nevertheless, the Obama administration reportedly plans to challenge the Arizona law.
On ABC’s “This Week” on May 9, Attorney General Eric Holder said that because of the Arizona law, "we could potentially get on a slippery slope where people will be picked on because of how they look as opposed to what they have done."
The Justice Department is "considering all of our options," said Holder, including a lawsuit either on the grounds that the Arizona law pre-empts federal powers or is a “violation of federal civil rights statutes.”
On Apr. 23, President Obama said the law was “misguided,” adding that it could potentially violate a person’s civil rights.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano agreed with President Obama that the law is “misguided.” She also said its enforcement would stretch federal resources.
On the Apr. 26 edition of ABC "World News," Napolitano said, “That one is a misguided law. It's not a good law enforcement law. It's not a good law in any number of reasons."
On Apr. 25, Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who represents a district that includes 300 miles along the U.S.-Mexico border, said, "We're going to overturn this unjust and racist law, and then we're going to overturn the power structure that created this unjust, racist law.”
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