Boycotts put Arizona's reputation on the line

(News Today) - As the voice of opposition to Arizona's controversial immigration law gets louder, the state's reputation can expect to take a hit.

Critics of the law are calling for economic boycotts of Arizona, urging corporations and organizations to refrain from holding conventions in the state.

They're also pressuring Major League Baseball to take its 2011 All-Star Game elsewhere, much like the National Football League did in 1993 when Arizona refused to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday.

While Arizona can ride out the backlash in the short term, the impact could hit hard later on, said Brayden King, assistant professor of management and organizations at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

"The reputational consequences will have long-term economic consequences if it's not resolved," King said.

Critics have said the law, which allows police to ask anyone for proof of legal U.S. residency, will lead to racial profiling. Supporters argue it will crack down on illegal immigration.

Latino rights groups, others call for Arizona boycott

Days after the bill was signed into law, Debbie Johnson, president and CEO of the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association, said three conferences were canceled, including a gathering of the American Immigration Lawyers Association scheduled for fall.

The calls for boycotts are coming from across the country. The Boston City Council approved a resolution calling on the Massachusetts city to pull investments from Arizona. The Oakland, California, City Council voted this week to boycott Arizona businesses. Chris Coleman, mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota, banned city-funded travel to the state.

Coleman also planned to write letters to the chairmen of the Republican and Democratic national committees, encouraging them not to choose Phoenix as the host city for their 2012 conventions.

In Arizona, the Tucson and Flagstaff city councils voted this week to file suit against the immigration law. The city councils said they're taking action because of concerns over enforcement costs and negative effects on Arizona's tourism industry.

Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup said up to 38 percent of retail sales in the city come from legal Mexican visitors.

The Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association has set up a Facebook page titled "Don't Boycott AZ Tourism," which urges visitors not to scapegoat the tourist industry and its workers.

Supporters of the law outside of the state are mobilizing. Organizers with Voice of the People USA and Tea Party Patriots Live announced Thursday they planned to hold rallies in Phoenix and across the country the week of June 5 to counter any boycotts and show support for the immigration law.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has dismissed the notion that the state's immigration law would hurt economic development, saying many businesses have long wanted tougher action. The law is slated to go into effect late this summer unless court challenges hold it up.

What does the law do?

In an editorial on ESPN.com, Brewer said the recent boycotts and calls for MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to move next year's All-Star game are misguided.

"Put simply, history shows that boycotts backfire and harm innocent people. Boycotts are just more politics and manipulation by out-of-state interests. As a border state, Arizona has already paid a heavy price for the federal government's failure -- hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in unreimbursed costs -- and its citizens should not be punished further," she wrote in the Wednesday article.

But King, the Northwestern professor, said history also has shown the opposite to be true.

Citing the Boston Tea Party in the 1770s and the civil rights-era boycotts in the South, King noted, "Those did not hurt the innocent, and they had real impact on political and social change."

A majority of Americans support Arizona's law, even though most of them think it could lead to racial profiling, according to a recent national poll.

A CBS/New York Times survey released Tuesday indicates that Americans overwhelmingly believe that the country's immigration laws need to be changed.

A Gallup Poll released last week showed similar public attitudes: Nearly four in 10 Americans supported the law, with three in 10 opposed, and 31 percent saying they had not heard of the new law at the time, or had no opinion.

While the boycotts are keeping the law in the spotlight, King predicted that even those apathetic about the issue could take a side.

"Even people who wouldn't have cared in the first place are now becoming aware of it and are starting to develop opinions about it. They may have been lukewarm or moderate in the beginning, but they are probably becoming polarized as they become more educated about the issue," he said, noting that Arizonans' opinion on the issue could change as well.

"[Brewer's] constituents will not be happy if Arizona loses major business revenue like a Super Bowl or an All-Star Game," he said. "Even if their own pocketbook is not being affected, they're not going to want to be associated with that kind of negative press."

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Latino rights group, others call for Arizona boycott

Washington (News Today) - A Latino rights group and other immigrant and labor organizations called Thursday for a national boycott of Arizona over the state's new immigration law, which allows police to ask anyone for proof of legal U.S. residency.

The call for a boycott was led by the National Council of La Raza, which bills itself as the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.

Other organizations calling for the boycott include the Asian American Justice Center, the Center for Community Change, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the National Puerto Rican Coalition, the Service Employees International Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

The groups pledged not to hold major conventions, conferences or other special events involving significant travel to Arizona from out of state and "asked others to consider whether their purchases of goods and services might perpetuate the unjust and discriminatory law in Arizona," La Raza said on its website.

"When a law so contrary to our values is passed, we must act decisively," said La Raza President and CEO Janet Murguia. "We are calling for a boycott because this law will blow open the door to increased racial profiling, wrongful arrests and other discrimination."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who signed the immigration measure April 23, says it does not involve racial profiling or any other illegal acts.

The law, known as SB 1070, is scheduled to go into effect this summer.

The measure has drawn criticism in the United States and abroad.

In Arizona, the Tucson and Flagstaff city councils voted this week to file suit against the measure.

The city councils said they're taking action because of concerns over enforcement costs and negative effects on Arizona's tourism industry.

In Tucson, council member Regina Romero introduced a motion for "the city attorney to bring a legal challenge" because the immigration bill is "unconstitutional" and "a bad law, which could cost the city millions of dollars in lawsuits."

"This bill opens the door to racial profiling, and it puts Latinos in Arizona in automatic suspect mode," Romero said.

Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup said up to 38 percent of retail sales in the city come from legal Mexican visitors.

The state immigration law threatens Tucson's businesses, Walkup said, just when "the city is just beginning to recover from the economic downturn."

Criticism also has come from abroad, with the Mexican government issuing an advisory to its citizens last week to avoid travel to Arizona.

The Organization of American States expressed its concern about the law last week, and presidents of South American countries meeting in Argentina for a gathering of the Union of South American Nations condemned the law Tuesday.

Well-known Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes recommended this week that dark-skinned people, men with mustaches, women who use shawls, or anyone who does not speak English well should not go to Arizona, because the state has "officially declared itself racist," the government-run Notimex news service reported Wednesday.

The Phoenix Suns basketball team also criticized the new law, and wore jerseys marked "Los Suns" in Wednesday night's NBA playoff game against the San Antonio Spurs.

"The frustration with the federal government's failure to deal with the issue of illegal immigration resulted in passage of a flawed state law," Suns managing partner Robert Sarver said in a statement. "However intended, the result of passing this law is that our basic principles of equal rights and protection under the law are being called into question, and Arizona's already struggling economy will suffer even further setbacks at a time when the state can ill-afford them."

Arizona legislators say they passed the law because the federal government has failed to safeguard the border with Mexico, allowing more than 450,000 undocumented immigrants to settle in the state.

On Thursday, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York wrote a letter to Brewer, asking Arizona to delay implementing the law for one year "in order to permit Congress sufficient time to enact comprehensive immigration reform to address Arizona's security needs."

Source : CNN

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Latino businesses feel pinch of new immigration law

Phoenix, Arizona (News Terupdate) - Hector Manrique takes a look around his taqueria and sighs. It's 3:30 in the afternoon, and usually around this time at least five or six tables are occupied by day laborers fresh off work, or schoolchildren and families in search of a torta or taco after school.

But today, Taqueria Guadalajara's plastic lawn chairs and tables are empty, and so is the tip jar on the counter. Street traffic in this predominantly Hispanic neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona, is also lighter than usual, says Manrique, who opened the casual Mexican eatery in 2003.

Not even a week has passed since Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law tough measures targeting illegal immigrants, but Manrique and others who own businesses that cater primarily to Phoenix's large Hispanic community say they are already feeling the effects.

"I think they're afraid of being out on the streets knowing they're going to get pulled over by the sheriff," says Manrique, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen who has lived in Phoenix since the 1990s. "A lot of people told me they're afraid to go out even though the law's not fully passed."

The governor's signing of the bill has ignited a firestorm of debate in Arizona, with activists on both sides of the issue clamoring to keep the issue alive. If the new law withstands the numerous legal challenges being threatened, it could take effect as soon as August.

Opinion: Law brings big risks for Arizona

Supporters say the law will temper the negative effects of immigration, such as crime and the misuse of taxpayer dollars to fund health care and education needs of illegal immigrants.

Opponents fear that the "reasonable suspicion" standard applied to enforcing the bill will create a climate that fosters fear and condones racial profiling, drawing comparisons to fascism and apartheid.

On Monday, Brewer deflected concerns that the state's new immigration law will hurt economic development, saying many businesses have long wanted tougher action.

Manrique says customers started to become scarce a few weeks ago, when news surfaced that the bill was likely to pass. Then came Friday, the day Brewer signed the legislation.

"The streets just went empty. Usually on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, we're packed. But this weekend was empty like I'd never seen it before," Manrique said.

Cafferty: Arizona law is working already

Across town, Jose Rivas' bodega offers customers a money wiring teller, a butcher counter and a wide variety of Mexican brands of cookies, beverages and household goods. He said his business also is taking a hit, and that the effects could be long-term.

"Ours is a culture that consumes a lot -- food, drinks, clothes, you name it," said Rivas, periodically stopping to greet or wave at a customer. "If no one's out shopping, how can I afford to employ my workers? They're all here legally. What happens to them?"

Ernesto Tercero, a first-generation Arizonan whose family is from Mexico, owns a meat distribution company that supplies dozens of stores in Phoenix. He says SB 1070 is a slap in the face to the Hispanic community.

"These people came here because they were told that there were jobs. They were brought here under promises of work, the American dream, and for many years we kept the dream alive," he said.

Arizona Tea Partier: "Illegal is not a race"

Tercero, a tall, outspoken man whose gregarious manner underscores his deep connection to the community, noted that Hispanics both legal and illegal are considering leaving Arizona to avoid confrontations with law enforcement.

"They got people who've been here 20 years, they got kids, people who came when their kids were 3, 4 years old. Now they're 20 years old. They can't go back to Mexico. They've never even been to Mexico."

Growing up in Phoenix, Tercero recalls a time when Spanish was discouraged from being spoken in schools and Hispanics were limited in the jobs they could pursue and the places they could live.

Since then, self-made businessmen like Tercero, Rivas and Manrique have become models of success in Phoenix's small business community, said Todd Landfried, a spokesman for Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform.

"This law punishes local business owners who make a living catering to a Latino market," Landfried said. "They've done everything expected of them. So why are they the ones getting punished?"

Source : CNN

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