Brought to you by Jeff Mazzella, President, Center for Individual Freedom
Barack Obama just invited the United Nations to join his ongoing fight against Arizona and dozens of other states attempting to enforce the immigration laws that he refuses to enforce.
Unfortunately, you read that right. On August 20, the United States, for the first time ever, submitted a 29-page "Universal Periodic Review" (UPR) to the UN Human Rights Council, which outlines a laundry list of human rights abuses allegedly committed by the United States.
Contained within that laundry list of so-called abuses is a direct condemnation of S.B. 1070, legislation enacted by the state of Arizona (and supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people), which seeks to do the job that the federal government has refused to do... secure the border.
Specifically, the Obama Administration wrote in the report: "A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined."
The submission of this UPR is the first step in a United Nations review process which will culminate with the issuance of a plan of action, approximately 90 days from now, from a panel of UN bureaucrats
from France, Japan and Cameroon.
At that point, the United States would be expected to "voluntarily" comply with the panel's recommendations, but as the UN Human Rights Council states on its website: "The Human Rights Council will decide on the measures it would need to take in case of persistent non-cooperation by a State..."
In short, Barack Obama has upped the ante. Not content with simply filing a frivolous federal suit against the people of Arizona, Obama has transformed his amnesty feud with the American people into an international human rights cause and effectively placed the people of Arizona (and other states that are considering similar border security bills) under the jurisdiction of a gang of America-hating
United Nations bureaucrats.
Is This UPR A Direct Affront To American Sovereignty? Of course it is.
In fact, when it comes to the sovereignty of the United States, and specifically the desire of the American people to secure our borders, the United Nations has already made its views clear.
In May, a United Nations panel of six so-called "human rights experts" from the United States, Mexico, Kenya, Pakistan and Costa Rica issued a report addressing S.B. 1070 which read, in part: "A disturbing pattern of legislative activity hostile to ethnic minorities and immigrants has been established with the adoption of an immigration law that may allow for police action targeting individuals on the basis of their perceived ethnic origin."
And the UPR itself was actually produced by a literal rogues gallery of the extreme left. According to Doug Hagmann with Canada Free Press: "The report is the product of about a dozen conferences held across the U.S. between January and April 2010. The participants of these conferences featured such luminaries as Stephen Rickard and Wendy Patten from George Soros' Open Society Institute; Devon Chaffee, Human Rights First; Andrea Prasow, Human Rights Watch...among others."
Hagmann adds: "SB 1070 has... now been moved to an international venue and potential international oversight by the United Nations. The stakes for our national sovereignty have been just raised by the submission of this document, which is the first step of 'voluntary compliance' to the provisions of the United Nations' Human Rights Council."
So why is Obama appealing to the United Nations? Internet blogger Ben Johnson perhaps put what is happening before our very eyes in its proper context: "When the Left cannot win at the ballot box... it overrules the people in the courts. Now that Obama is not sure he can prevail in the courts, he has overruled the American people by hauling Arizona and the two-thirds of Americans who support its law before the United Nations."
