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IPFS News Link • Mexico

Immigration's Surprise Villain

• Daily Beast
As Arizona Governor Jan Brewer tries to kill ethnic studies, Bryan Curtis says there’s an unexpected force behind the state’s awful immigration bill: Mexico's  President Felipe Calderon.

Who should we blame for Arizona’s anti-immigrant law? Governor Jan Brewer, who signed the thing. The Tea Parties, which have dragged our politics to the right. And the U.S. Congress, which has gone three years without acting on immigration reform. But, today, let’s train our animus on a politician who has thus far escaped much scrutiny: Felipe Calderon, the president of Mexico.

Calderon’s war on drugs, now wobbling into its fourth year, helped turn the U.S.-Mexico border into a bloody slaughterhouse, complete with kidnappings, torture, and beheadings. You can draw a straight line between the border’s climate of terror and the political opportunism in Arizona.