COLUMBIA, S.C. - Sixteen Latin American and Caribbean nations on Tuesday asked to join the U.S. Department of Justice's lawsuit against South Carolina's new illegal immigration law amid fears it would lead to their citizens facing state-sanctioned discrimination.
Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Ecuador and Chile were among the nations filing papers Tuesday, asking to join the litigation filed by the Justice Department last week in Charleston.
In the complaint, federal lawyers asked the court to stop the state from enforcing a law that takes effect in January. The measure would require law officers who make a traffic stop to call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. The measure bars officers from holding someone solely on that suspicion. Opponents railed against the measure as encouraging racial profiling.
The nations state in their filings that their relationships are with the United States and that relationship should not be affected by what states do. They've filed similar challenges to Alabama's new law.
Mexico said it "has an interest in protecting its citizens and ensuring that their ethnicity is not used as the basis for state-sanctioned acts of bias and discrimination."
That was a view shared in a separate request to join the litigation by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The Justice Department is challenging similar laws in Alabama and Arizona and is reviewing them in Utah, Indiana and Georgia.
16 nations challenge SC immigration law
Mexico, Honduras, Brazil, Ecuador and Chile were among the nations filing papers Tuesday, asking to join the litigation filed by the Justice Department last week in Charleston.
In the complaint, federal lawyers asked the court to stop the state from enforcing a law that takes effect in January. The measure would require law officers who make a traffic stop to call federal immigration officials if they suspect someone is in the country illegally. The measure bars officers from holding someone solely on that suspicion. Opponents railed against the measure as encouraging racial profiling.
The nations state in their filings that their relationships are with the United States and that relationship should not be affected by what states do. They've filed similar challenges to Alabama's new law.
Mexico said it "has an interest in protecting its citizens and ensuring that their ethnicity is not used as the basis for state-sanctioned acts of bias and discrimination."
That was a view shared in a separate request to join the litigation by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
The Justice Department is challenging similar laws in Alabama and Arizona and is reviewing them in Utah, Indiana and Georgia.
16 nations challenge SC immigration law
