Obama Labels AZ Immigration Law as Human Rights Problem
The battle over immigration and the challenge to Arizona's sound and reasonable immigration law has reached a new low.
President Obama's State Department has filed an unprecedented report with the United Nations Human Rights Council citing Arizona's immigration law as a human rights problem in this country. That's right - the Obama Administration, which is challenging the AZ law in federal court, is now appealing to the United Nations - and to some of the most repressive countries in the world - actually citing the Arizona law as an example of human rights abuses in this country.
It is a comparison that is deeply troubling. How can the President compare AZ's law - which protects the state's borders and residents - to a human rights abuse? There's no shortage of legitimate human rights abuses that need to be investigated - including the murder and torture of Christians around the world because of their religious beliefs. To compare AZ's immigration law to a human rights problem is simply absurd.
This is just another example of President Obama's disturbing philosophy of placing the United States under international review. Despite past presidential administrations repeated refusal to legitimize the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Obama Administration was quick to subject the U.S. to review under the Council. This position has met heavy criticism. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is quoted as saying, Without meaningful membership standards, that body will remain nothing more than a rogues gallery, and our participation will have the net result of legitimizing its biased actions.
The Human Rights Council devotes a majority of its efforts to condemning Israel, while ignoring some of the worlds worst human rights abusers. The current Council is made up of 47 countries, with less than half of its members considered to be free countries according to credible human rights organizations. The Council harbors some of the worst human rights offenders in the world.
The Obama Administration must not be permitted to get away with this tactic. As you know, we're engaged in the legal fight to defend AZ's immigration law and have filed amicus briefs with the federal district court and now the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on behalf of 66 members of Congress urging the appeals court to uphold the constitutionality of AZ's measure.
By including the AZ immigration law in this U.N. report, the Obama Administration sidesteps the judicial process accorded by the U.S. Constitution and places the duly enacted law before an international body for review. This move undercuts American sovereignty, the well-established principle of federalism, and the popular will of the people.
Most Americans don't support the President's position on this issue and according to a recent Rasmussen poll, 61% of Americans support a law similar to the Arizona measure in their own state.
So now President Obama, clearly not satisfied with challenging the AZ law in our federal court system, is appealing to the international community - hoping to generate opposition against the AZ law on a global scale.
It's time to put a stop to this effort.
We're standing with AZ Governor Jan Brewer in demanding that the State Department revise its report - and REMOVE any reference to AZ's immigration law. As she puts it: The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a State of the United States to review by the United Nations is internationalism run amok.
Our legal and legislative teams in this country are working with our international affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice, to prepare a report urging the U.N. Human Rights Council to disregard the inclusion of the AZ immigration law because it falls outside the realm of human rights. We've produced a legal memo outlining our position on this issue. You can read the memo here.
As we continue to support the AZ law in court, we're now demanding that the State Department REMOVE the AZ immigration law from its UN report on human rights problems. Stand with the ACLJ and have your voice heard on this critical issue. Sign on to our Petition demanding that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton retract this damaging report - REMOVE AZ's immigration law from this report. Sign on to our Petition - President Obama: Stop You Assault on America. Add your name here.
We will keep you informed on developments on this front. Stay in touch with us and get the latest information on our daily radio broadcast, Jay Sekulow Live!