WASHINGTON, DC – The Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, today regretted the harshness that immigration law HB 56, passed in the State of Alabama, represents to the lives of thousands of immigrants arriving in the United States from Latin American countries “to exchange their hard labor for a better quality of life and hopes that, in many cases, their own countries cannot offer them.” Laws such as HB 56, he emphasized, “seek to artificially supress natural processes and exacerbate feelings of discrimination and xenophobia towards immigrants.”
“It is not up to me to comment on decisions made by national courts, but I have always said that experience shows that until now the search for solutions to the problem of irregular immigration through restrictive and punitive measures has not been effective,” Secretary General Insulza said. He added that “what is most surprising is that HB 56 denies access to education not only to Hispanic children but to American children whose parents have an irregular migration status.”
In this respect, the Secretary General said that “education is a human right as much as a vital medium for promoting peace and respect for human rights and fundamental liberties,” and asserted that “to contribute to build a more peaceful world, education must be universal and accessible equally to all. Gabriela Mistral has said it: the future of children is always today. Tomorrow is too late.”
According to a Pew Hispanic Center report, childhood poverty among Hispanics in the United States breaks records. More Latino children live in poverty -6.1 million in 2010- than children in any other racial or ethnic group.
The OAS Secretary General applauded the steps taken by the federal government of the United States to take this ruling to the Supreme Court.
