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Mexico’s response to Arizona’s Anti Illegal Immigration Bill

With the Senate Bill 1070 passed on April 23, 2010 by Jan Brewer, its (Republican) governor, the whole country has been divided on the subject of racial profiling, the violation of civil rights as we know it and rightly so, as this law moves away from the beliefs on which the nation of the United States came into being.
As demeaning as this law can turn out to be, especially for Mexicans and Hispanics as a whole, who can and will be checked for personal identification to prove that he or she is a citizen on the basis of mere suspicion, one can’t help but be reminded of the gradual erosion of rights that each citizen in the United States has had to trade away for ‘safety’ over the last few years.

Mexico, on the other hand, is also divided in its opinion as well. The politicians in Congress consider this law as fascistic and racist, while for the common man, this has turned out to be a reason to celebrate in watching the ones who ‘left the Motherland’ under the threat of constant scrutiny, although unnecessarily in some cases.

Even though Arizona and Mexico engage in serious trade, this law has come across as one “that assumes that every Mexican citizen may be harassed and questioned without reason”. And that is where the Mexican government has drawn the line.

While activists on this side of the border want the Mexican government to respond with stringent actions of their own, it still remains to be seen whether this law can exist in a time when freedom means more than ever.

An Emphasis on Tighter Border Security

The Arizona Senate Bill 1070 has more than just raised issues and accusations of racial profiling and fascistic behavior by also finally getting enough attention from Congress and the Federal government. Since the state of Arizona has already toughened its stance on immigration, and has not thrown the federal government a bone (if you will) in waiting for its solution via the Immigration Reform Bill that will put paid to the issue of illegal immigrants coming into the country as well as the legalization of illegal immigrants in the United States already.

And so in response, the Democrats circulated a 26-page draft in Congress titled ‘Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform’ that was attacked immediately by their bipartisan counterparts as being unrealistic and for ‘taking a partisan approach’. A classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, you think?

In denying the proposal, not only has this given the Democrats the ammo to say that the Republicans didn’t want to reach an amicable solution, even though it did side with the Republicans in suggesting that tighter border security measures had to be enforced by beefing up law enforcement personnel along the border before illegal immigrants in the United States could be considered for an interim visa which allows them to work legally and leave the US when they want.

Suggestions also include using sophisticated ‘ground sensors’ and the use of biometrics for fingerprinting foreigners leaving the country in an effort to find technical resolution to a problem that have plagued the country for so long now.

And for this, rather than just a prolonged open debate, one considers that funding this initiative in the months ahead will be the right steps to take.