The Mexican foreign ministry on Thursday issued a statement denouncing the decision of a U.S. District Judge David C. Bury who refused on Wednesday to impose and an injunction on Arizona Proposition 200, and thus allowed the law to go into effect. Approved by 56% of Arizona voters on November 2, the proposition requires people to prove citizenship when registering to vote and when applying for certain state-government benefits, including welfare.
Mexico accused the state of Arizona of ??¢â???¬?????fostering discrimination??¢â???¬ and ethnic profiling.
??¢â???¬?????The Foreign Relations Secretariat reiterates its complete rejection of this reform that constitutes a measure fostering discriminatory actions based on an ethnic profile and which can generate an adverse climate for the Mexican community established in that state," the secretariat said in a statement issued on December 23.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that Mexicans working abroad mainly, mostly in the United States, sent back a record $13.8 billion in remittances during the first 10 months of 2004. That was a 23.3% increase over the first 10 months of 2003.
