http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0308delegation08.html
Mexico pushes Prop. 200 concerns
Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
Mar. 8, 2005 12:00 AM
MEXICO CITY - A group of Mexican senators is heading to Arizona to investigate the effects of Proposition 200 amid growing fears in Mexico that other states will copy the measure.
The senators plan to meet with Mexican diplomats and migrants, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon and state Attorney General Terry Goddard, said Domingo Clavel, technical secretary for the Senate's Human Rights Committee.
"The purpose is to see what the real effects of Law 200 are," Clavel said on Monday. "They want to analyze it, to try to keep these types of laws from spreading all along the border."
Proposition 200 was approved by Arizona voters in November.
It requires all Arizonans to show proof of citizenship when applying to vote and proof of legal residency when applying for certain government benefits.
The Mexican delegation includes Miguel Sadot Sánchez Carreño, chairman of the Senate's Human Rights Commission, and six other senators from all three of the main political parties in Mexico, Clavel said.
They will arrive in Phoenix on Wednesday and leave Saturday.
Gordon and Goddard's offices confirmed the visits.
Clavel said the senators also plan to meet with groups that campaigned against Proposition 200, as well as Daniel Ortega, the Phoenix lawyer helping to challenge the measure in court.
On Sunday, Mexico's National Commission on Human Rights blamed the Arizona law for inspiring immigration-control advocates to seek similar measures in Arkansas, Colorado, California, Idaho, Nevada and Georgia.
It also voiced concern over the Minuteman Project, a plan by activists to mount a civilian patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border in April.
The commission said it was worried that anti-immigrant sentiment was obscuring the important role Mexican migrants play in the U.S. economy.
"The United States cannot ignore or downplay the fact that migrant workers, documented or not, make an important contribution in productivity to the economy of that country," the commission said in a written statement.
"They should be subject to the social protection and benefits that the state confers, and in all cases, receive a dignified and respectful recognition of their fundamental rights," it said.
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