Arizona Has a Mess on It’s Hands – Bill 1070
ARIZONA IS IN A
MESS OF HOT WATER!
The controversial Arizona Senate Bill 1070 has sparked protests across the country and in Colorado. The bill gives law enforcement expansive powers in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration. Supporters say the new law provides local law enforcement with much-needed tools to enforce current laws. Immigrant-rights groups, including the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), say the measure unfairly targets minorities and encourages racial profiling. The CIRC website points out:
“This law requires police verify the immigration status of anyone they have reasonable suspicion is undocumented and arrest anyone who can’t immediately prove their status.
Yet there are no outwardly distinguishable differences between an undocumented immigrant and a citizen, requiring police use racial profiling to draw their conclusions.”
Employees of the City of Boulder will no longer be traveling to Arizona for business, City Manager Jane Brautigam announced today, as a show of the city’s opposition to the recent immigration legislation passed in that state.
The Washington D.C. Council has delayed consideration of an Arizona boycott after the American Hotel & Lodging Association intervened, the Washington Post reports.
Several cities and municipal bodies, including San Francisco, are considering or have adopted a ban on official travel to Arizona to protest the new law. The AH&LA has said that banning travel could hurt the state’s travel and tourism industry and its workers.
IGLTA said today, “The International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association joins in solidarity with leaders in travel and hospitality as well as the LGBT community to condemn the recent hurtful and discriminatory actions on immigration policy taken by Arizona. As industry leaders in uniting and welcoming all, we know first hand that our world is enriched through our diverse connections.
As a matter of longstanding policy, however, we also oppose all efforts to impose an economic boycott on the state of Arizona. We know that this otherwise well-intended approach will harm many of our ally businesses, large and small, that are welcoming and inclusive of the LGBT community and others. As the U.S. Travel Association stated, especially in this very tough economic climate, “We need to protect this critical aspect of our economy and reward hard-working Americans instead of proposing boycotts that will lead to job losses and economic hardship for families and local communities. It is inappropriate to punish the men and women of our industry who have done no harm to others.”
