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<> LA VOZ DE AZTLAN NEWS BULLETIN <>
<>.<>.<> Los Angeles, Alta California <>.<>.<>May 19, 2007
UN Special Rapporteur concludes investigation of immigrant rights abuses
Jorge A. Bustamante, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of Migrants, concluded visits to 10 US cities yesterday. The visits were for the purpose of gathering information on the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the United States. Jorge Bustamante was appointed Special Rapporteur by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, a United Nations agency based in Geneva. Bustamante will now present his findings to the United Nations in June.
The Special Rapporteur gathered information from immigration lawyers, public officials, advocacy groups, immigrant workers and former immigration detainees. This is the first broad international scrutiny of U.S. treatment of migrants concerning worker abuse, government raids and family separations.
The 10 city tour took Mr. Bustamante to San Diego, Los Angeles, Nogales, Tucson, Austin, Fort Myers, Atlanta, New York, Monmouth and Washington D.C. Coincidentally, Bustamante was in Los Angeles on May 1st, the day when the Los Angeles Police Department attacked and beat up Latino immigrants and news reporters at MacArthur Park. On this shocking incident Bustamante said, "The way the local police physically abused immigrant marchers represents a very serious violation of human rights."
After Los Angeles, the UN Special Rapporteur went to Nogales and Tucson, Arizona where some of the worse human rights abuses are taking place. The state of Arizona has become a haven for violent border vigilantes who have murdered a large number of Mexican migrants crossing the border. Also, a US Border Patrol agent is presently facing murder charges in Bisbee, Arizona for killing 22 year old Francisco Javier Dominguez-Rivera from Puebla, Mexico. Agent Nicholas Corbett is scheduled for a preliminary hearing before Judge David Morales on June 15. The hearing was moved from Douglass to Bisbee after border vigilantes made threats and a more secured location became necessary.
