Tapia: “We Congratulate the U.S. for Refuting the Arizona Law”

The president of the Special Commission of Peruvians Abroad, Hildebrando Tapia Samaniega, expressed his satisfaction with the measure announced by the United States Justice Department to refute the constitutionality of the so-called “Arizona Law,” which criminalizes the presence of undocumented immigrants.

“It is a large step in the process of searching for a balance in the relations between the countries of Latin America and the government of the United States in the fight against discrimination. We know that behind this measure there are a series of conversations that have not stopped with the purpose of watching over the rights and safeguarding the integrity and dignity of our fellow Latin-American compatriots,” he pointed out.

He assured that it is healthy that the United States government has taken action against a law that interferes in federal prerogatives since immigration policy is a matter for the federal government. “In the North American constitutional system federal authority is preeminent in the regulation of immigration matters,” he said.

Tapia Samaniego expressed that the Special Commission plans to conduct a meeting with Chancellor José Antonio García Belaúnde, after warning that the so-called Arizona Law would be a disastrous precedent that could be imitated by other states, which would lead to a worldwide social crisis.