Arizona immigration law encourages police abuse, says Mexican president


Arizona immigration law encourages police abuse, says Mexican president The Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has condemned Arizona’s new immigration law and warned that relations with the border state will suffer as a result. The law, which gives the police the right to stop anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant, “opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement”, Calderón said last night. Trade and political ties with Arizona would be “seriously affected”, he warned. “Nobody can sit around with their arms crossed in the face of decisions that so clearly affect our countrymen,” Calderón said in a speech at the Institute for Mexicans Abroad. His comments came as the furore over the law escalated, with calls growing in the US for a boycott of hotels, convention centres and other economic targets in Arizona. Opponents of the legislation say it will lead to victimisation of anyone who looks or sounds Latino. Supporters say the legislation is needed because the state can no longer cope with an estimated 450000 illegal immigrants. The head of the Organisation of American States, José Miguel Insulza, said: “We consider the bill clearly discriminatory against immigrants, and especially against immigrants from Latin America.” The government of the Mexican state of Sonora, which sits across the border from Arizona, announced it would not attend a co-operation meeting the two states have held annually for four decades. The meeting of the