Brewer demands Clinton remove Arizona from human rights report

AP100826031666Arizona GOP Gov. Jan Brewer is demanding that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remove an Arizona passage from the State Department's report on human rights in America.

The State Department said in its report (PDF) that Arizona's immigration law "has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world" and that the federal government was taking action in court against it.

In a letter to Clinton (PDF), Brewer called the inclusion "downright offensive."

"The idea of our own American government submitting the duly enacted laws of a State of the United States to 'review' by the United Nations is internationalism run amok and unconstitutional," she writes.

Brewer also argued that the increasing number of migrants who die while attempting to cross the parched Arizona border is a human rights issue, since they are, in her view, casualties of the insufficient force of Border Patrol agents in the region.

This report is the first the State Department has ever submitted to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, in a bid to bring greater scrutiny to the country's record. It makes brief mention of Arizona's law, but doesn't outline the specific human rights concerns that the law may have sparked:

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.

A group of six experts affiliated with the U.N. criticized Arizona's law in May,  saying that it may be in violation of international human rights agreements.

Brewer and Clinton have tussled before. The governor strongly criticized Clinton when Clinton let slip in an interview that the Justice Department had decided to challenge Arizona's law in court before that decision had been announced.

After signing the law, the governor rode a swell of popular support  to a handy primary victory. A federal judge's decision to strike down much of the law as unconstitutional has not made a dent in her popularity.

(Photo of Brewer: AP)