GOP lawmaker blasts Mexican pres. comments as inappropriate

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) blasted Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday, calling the visiting dignitary’s remarks on Arizona’s recently implemented immigration law “inappropriate.”

Earlier Thursday, Calderon condemned Arizona’s new immigration law during a speech to a joint session of Congress, saying it amounts to little more than racial profiling and that the United States is in need of comprehensive immigration reform.

“It’s inappropriate for a head of state to question our laws, especially when the state of Arizona only acted in the best interest of its citizens and with the support of seventy percent of its people,” said Hatch in a statement.

Hatch said Arizona was forced to pass the immigration law — which compels state law enforcement officials to require proper legal residency papers from people they suspect may be in the U.S. illegally — because of the federal government’s failure to stop drug and human smugglers, as well as illegal immigrants, from coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.

“The state of Arizona is stepping in where the federal government has failed,” said Hatch. “It is trying to stop waves of illegal immigrants, many of whom are dangerous gang members and drug and human traffickers, from crossing into its communities."