JURIST - Paper Chase: Saturday, January 29, 2011

[JURIST] The Arizona House of Representatives [official website] and Senate [official website] on Thursday introduced bills challenging the right to US citizenship for the children of legal and illegal immigrants born in the state. The proposed legislation, House Bill 2562 [text, PDF] and Senate Bill 1308 [text, PDF], are proposals to amend Title 36, Chapter 3 of the Arizona Revised Statutes [materials]. The Arizona legislature, in introducing these bills, seeks a legal review [Reuters report] of the Fourteenth Amendment [text] of the US Constitution, which grants citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof." The bills aim to guarantee citizenship only to children born of at least one parent who is a legal citizen, legal immigrant, active member of the Armed Forces or a naturalized legal citizen, and would seek Congressional permission to issue two separate type of birth certificates, based on whether the child meets the new citizenship requirements or not. Opponents to the bill argue that creating two separate and distinct birth certificates will create classes of people [Arizona Republic report], and brings to mind the policy of "separate but equal." Legislators are likely to vote on the bills in the next few weeks.

In the past year, Arizona has found itself at the center of the immigration debate in the United States. In October, a judge for the US District Court in the District of Arizona denied [order, PDF; JURIST report] motions to dismiss a class action lawsuit [JURIST report] challenging the constitutionality of the controversial Arizona immigration law [SB 1070 materials; JURIST news archive]. Portions of SB 1070 were preliminarily enjoined [JURIST report] in July 2010, at the request of the US Department of Justice, which filed its suit challenging the constitutionality of the law [JURIST report] earlier that month.

[JURIST] The US Embassy in Pakistan on Saturday demanded [press release] the prompt release of a US man who it believes has been illegally arrested in connection with the shooting deaths of two Pakistanis, arguing the man qualifies for diplomatic immunity. On Thursday, the diplomat was reportedly confronted by two armed men on motorcycles, who minutes earlier had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area. The embassy has said the man acted in self-defense when he shot and killed the two armed men. After being arrested, the man identified himself to police as a diplomat and cited his right to immunity under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations [text, PDF]. The US believes that police and senior authorities failed to check his status with appropriate channels, and formally arrested and remanded the diplomat in violation of international norms and the Vienna Convention, to which Pakistan is a signatory.

This dispute strains what are already shaky diplomatic relations [AP report] between the US and Pakistan. Those relations have been strained by a variety of factors, including deaths related to airstrikes within Pakistan [WP report]. As a result of those airstrikes, Pakistan filed a complaint with NATO [JURIST report] in October. Despite the fractured relationship, Pakistan remains one of the key US allies in the Middle East. In September of last year, Pakistani authorities arrested three individuals [JURIST report] linked with Faisal Shahzad [JURIST news archive], the man accused of attempting to detonate a bomb in Times Square.

[JURIST] Cuban activist and high-profile dissident Guillermo Farinas was imprisoned by Cuban authorities on Friday for the third time in 48 hours. The authorities have told Farinas that he will be jailed [AP report] if he meets with other dissidents in public. Farinas was detained for the first time Wednesday, in his home city of Santa Clara. He was released later that evening, then arrested Thursday and released again Friday morning. By Friday afternoon, he had been picked up a third time, as he defied the prohibition against gathering in public. Farinas, and those he gathered with, wished to place a wreath on a monument to Cuban independence leader Jose Marti [backgrounder, in Spanish] to commemorate the 158th anniversary of his birthday.

In October, the European Parliament [official website] named Farinas [press release; JURIST report] as the recipient of its 2010 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought [official website]. Farinas has undergone multiple hunger strikes in support of political prisoners and to protest conditions in Cuba, and was the publisher of the now-defunct Cubanacan Press, which sought to raise awareness of the former's statuses. Last year, Farinas staged a 135-day hunger strike that helped persuade Cuba to agree to the release of 52 political prisoners [JURIST report] in an arrangement negotiated with the Roman Catholic Church [church website].