Statement by Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo

Bogotá, Colombia. April 28 2010

I express my strong opposition to the measure that legalizes the persecution of immigrants residing in the U.S. state of Arizona and allows undocumented immigrants to be imprisoned for up to six months, fined up to $2,000 and even deported from the United States. Under this law, those persecuted will be people who in the vast majority of cases have been forced to leave their countries of origin because of poverty. Even though in the United States there are more than 10 million undocumented immigrants, no administration has tried to resolve the situation seriously and democratically. They have not done so because illegal immigration allows employers to pay miserable wages and make great profits off the labor of millions of Hispanics, Asians, and Africans who must endure long work days and all kinds of persecution to earn less than the minimum wage.

Additionally, the United States is the main cause of immigration. The policies it has imposed on the five continents have ruined the economies of almost all nations. Unemployment, poverty and the widening gap of scientific knowledge are all consequences of the United States’ global domination, which has deepened with free trade. These policies push millions of people to immigrate to the U.S. looking for a better life.

I express my solidarity with the democratic resistance of the immigrants of all the countries of the world and call upon the U.S. Congress to recognize their rights and to democratically resolve the situation of its more than 10 million immigrants.

The administration of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe must immediately take action to defend the dignity and rights of Colombians living abroad. For that reason, I call upon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to follow the lead of other governments in the region and wholly reject a measure that for obvious reasons hurts citizens of our country who live in the United States.