examiner.com
Local
U.N. official cancels Prince William County visit
Dan Genz, The Examiner
2008-06-10 14:22:00.0

Prince William County -

A United Nations official investigating Prince William County's illegal immigration crackdown abruptly postponed his high-profile trip to the community late Monday night, upsetting a slate of seven events set for today and tomorrow.

"I write to you with much regret for having to postpone the trip to Washington that I had promised you," said Jorge Bustamante, U.N. special rapporteur for the human rights of migrants.

Bustamante did not specify why the meeting was cancelled in a letter to local immigrant leader Ricardo Juarez of Mexicans Without Borders, calling it only, "something unexpected of extreme gravity."

Mexicans Without Borders coordinators would not elaborate on the reasons for the cancellation and hoped Bustamante would return at a later date.

Immigrant advocates planned to continue with events marking Bustamante's visit, saying they would videotape testimony from local immigrants and send it to Bustamante in California.

Illegal immigrant critics had blasted the visit as unwarranted and unnecessary.

http://www.examiner.com/a-1433701~U_N__ ... visit.html