Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that a city council candidate with limited English skills could be kept off the ballot in a predominantly Spanish-speaking town on the Mexico border.
The court upheld a lower court ruling that barred Alejandrina Cabrera from running in the March 13 Democratic primary for city council in the town of San Luis.
A Yuma County Superior Court judge last week disqualified Cabrera, 35, over what he called a “large gap” between her English proficiency and that required to serve as a public official.
Photo: Reuters
In a brief two-page ruling, the Arizona Supreme Court did not explain why it sided with the lower court judge, but said a written decision would follow.
“We’re all burned out and disappointed. I’m really surprised. I figured they’d throw this thing out,” John Minore, an attorney for Cabrera, said in an interview.
“I’ll protect the constitution against anyone, but this was government action against an individual,” he said.
The controversy swept San Luis, a sleepy farming town hugging the Arizona-Mexico border, into a national debate over the English language’s importance to US national identity.
Proponents of enforcing English as the sole language of government argue the country needs a common tongue to promote national unity, citing a long tradition of linguistic assimilation by generations of new Americans.
Rights activists say such language-based restrictions are hostile to immigrants, potentially driving a wedge between Latino communities and the rest of US society.
San Luis, a town of about 25,000 people about 320km southwest of Phoenix, lies just over a steel border fence from the much larger San Luis Rio Colorado, in Mexico’s northern Sonora state, with a population of roughly 200,000.
The two municipalities are considered by many residents as one and the same community and Spanish is the primary language.
Minore said it was unlikely his client would appeal.
“We’d love to, but we can’t fund it. We’re just small little rural law firms. We can’t afford to go forward,” Minore said.
Cabrera, a US citizen born in Yuma, Arizona, declined to comment immediately after the ruling.
Cabrera moved to Mexico when she was young and spent much of her childhood there. She returned to Arizona for the last three years of high school.
The debate comes as several US states, led by Arizona, have adopted laws cracking down on illegal immigrants.
The San Luis city clerk ordered the ballots printed without Cabrera’s name after the ruling, spokeswoman Karin Meza said.
“In the narrow matter of law, obviously we were right,” said Glenn Gimbut, city attorney for San Luis, which brought the suit. “But as this has steered into broader political debate, that one is above my pay grade.”
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
HAZARDOUS CONDITION: The typhoon’s sheer size, with winds extending 443km from its center, slowed down the ability of responders to help communities, an official said The US Coast Guard was searching for six people after losing contact with their disabled boat off the coast of Guam following Typhoon Sinlaku. The crew of the 44m dry cargo vessel, the US-registered Mariana, on Wednesday notified the coast guard that the boat had lost its starboard engine and needed assistance, Petty Officer 3rd Class Avery Tibbets said yesterday. The coast guard set up a one-hour communication schedule with the vessel, but lost contact on Thursday. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft was launched to search for the six people on board, but it had to return to Guam because of
RSS