It's perfectly understandable that Americans differ on just how our nation should deal with the problem of illegal immigration. But that is a matter for the American people and their elected lawmakers to hash out.
So it is troubling to learn that about a dozen Latin American nations have filed legal briefs in a U.S. court to have Utah's recently enacted immigration law overturned.
Nations stretching from Mexico all the way down to Argentina have intervened in the federal lawsuit in support of organizations that are seeking to have the Utah law declared unconstitutional.
Utah, like Georgia, Alabama and a number of other states, has enacted a law to fight illegal immigration. Many states are extremely frustrated that the federal government has not fulfilled its duty to combat illegal immigration.
But Mexico and the other Latin American nations - the countries from which most of America's millions of illegal aliens come - say Utah's law creates "an imminent threat of state-sanctioned bias or discrimination." They say they want to ensure the "civil rights" of their citizens in the United States - apparently even if those citizens came to this country unlawfully!
The "rights" to which illegal aliens are entitled are humane treatment once they are apprehended, followed by prompt deportation.
U.S. courts, meanwhile, should base their decisions on our nation's and our states' laws, not on meddling and pressure from foreign governments.