Mexican President Felipe Calderon hit out on Wednesday at “discrimination” against Mexican immigrants in Arizona, as the row over the state’s draconian new immigration law risked overshadowing his US visit.
Calderon did not pull any punches during his two-day state visit, strongly criticizing a law that, while popular in Arizona, has enraged Hispanics and stoked fears of racial profiling.
“Despite their enormous contribution to the economy and society of the United States,” millions of immigrants “still live in the shadows, and at times, like in Arizona, even face patterns of discrimination,” Calderon said.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Mexican president was welcomed at a red-carpet White House ceremony full of pomp and pageantry, and the two leaders later toasted each other at a gala dinner attended by a veritable who’s who of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans.
During closed-door talks, Calderon and Obama discussed Mexico’s concerns over the Arizona law, which the US president agreed “has the potential of being applied in a discriminatory fashion.”
Obama, standing side by side with Calderon, said he had directed the US Department of Justice to look “very carefully at the language of this law,” and report back on whether it conforms to “our core values” and “legal standards.”
Obama issued a new push for comprehensive immigration reform by offering up to 12 million illegal immigrants, many of them Mexicans, a path to US citizenship, while simultaneously reinforcing the porous US-Mexican borer.
Most observers suspect that any such legislation has almost no chance of being enacted amid the partisan fervor of a congressional election year, with immigration one of the most divisive political issues.
“I’ve got to have some support from Republicans ... I don’t expect to get every Republican vote, but I need some help in order to get it done,” Obama said.
The US and Mexican governments issued a declaration on the need to bolster border enforcement, as Obama said they were both responsible for securing their joint border.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer says the new law — which has enjoyed broad support in recent opinion polls — is necessary to help secure her state’s border with Mexico, one of the main entry points for illegal immigrants coming into the US.
Calderon faces huge domestic pressure to push for immigration reform in the US in the wake of the new law, which allows police to detain anyone suspected of being in the US illegally.
Supporters say the Arizona legislation is merely an expression of the frustration felt by many ordinary Americans who want the government to be more proactive on the issue of illegal immigrants and are concerned about soaring crime and unemployment.
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