We don't post a lot of politics here on Neatorama, so pardon me for this post about the new and controversial Arizona law that forced local police to check whether a person is an illegal immigrant (presumably from Mexico).
Critics contend that the law will lead to racial profiling. Even Mexican President Felipe Calderón has blasted the law as violating basic human rights.
Whether you agree with the law or not, here's the point of this post: it turns out that despite its bluster, Mexico actually has very similar laws on its book against the country's own Honduran illegal immigrants!
Mexico's Foreign Ministry said the law "violates inalienable human rights" and Democrats in Congress applauded Mexican President Felipe Calderón's criticisms of the law in a speech he gave on Capitol Hill last week.
Yet Mexico's Arizona-style law requires local police to check IDs. And Mexican police freely engage in racial profiling and routinely harass Central American migrants, say immigration activists. [...]
"There (in the United States), they'll deport you," Hector Vázquez, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, said as he rested in a makeshift camp with other migrants under a highway bridge in Tultitlán. "In Mexico they'll probably let you go, but they'll beat you up and steal everything you've got first."
Chris Hawley of USA Today has the full story: Link (Photo: Sergio Solache/USA Today)
http://www.neatorama.com/2010/06/04/law-requires-police-to-check-for-illegal-immigrants-arizona-nope-mexico/
