Arizona is starting to feel financial pressure after passing racist Senate Bill 1070. The California cities of San Francisco, Oakland and Los Angeles have all passed laws boycotting Arizona based businesses. No new contracts will be signed until SB1070 is repealed. This will amount to hundreds of millions loss of businesses per year.
We have been spending a week or two in Arizona every year on our way to Mexico but we will be seriously looking for alternatives this winter. If we do continue using Lukeville, our favorite crossing place, it will just be a very fast trip through Arizona, spending as little money in that State as possible.
I know the loss of my few hundred dollars will not do much to force Arizona's 18.6 billion dollar tourism industry to talk some sense into their State Government but I suspect I will not be alone.
EDIT: I just saw that 28 conventions have been canceled in Arizona because of this racist law. Hotel and restaurant owners - talk to your Governor! This is money right out of your pockets!
Keith Olberman on the "Breathing While Latino" Law:
I don't understand people who have a problem with this.
ReplyDelete"The law allows local police to demand citizenship papers from people they suspect of being here illegally and to detain them if they can't produce the documents."
So what exactly is wrong with this law?
But Kevin, are they going to stop you and I and demand proof of our right to be in the USA. No. Why? Because we look like "Americans". Kevin and Croft are not going to be pulled over and harassed but Jose and Juanita are. Because they look like "them", and the USA is now one step closer to being an "us" against "them" society.
ReplyDeleteWhen you and a Latino are driving down the street side by side there is a far greater chance for the Latino to be pulled over and forced to show his papers than there is for you to be. This is Racial Profiling.
Using your quoted statement, what documents would you show them? What document(s) do you have while in the USA that would prove you are there legally? Do you want a situation where we would be required to obtain such proof in order to pass through Arizona? Not me, I will enter MX through CA or TX first.
Good for you, Croft! I'm so heartened to hear how many are boycotting the State in protest.
ReplyDeleteI believe there are many things wrong with this law. Consider, also, what might happen to the relationship between the local police and various communities. Do you think people are going to be eager to cooperate with the police to help report or solve other crimes when they're in fear of deportation or harassment? And I don't just mean undocumented people, here.
Leave deportation to ICE (which also needs to be fixed!) so that the local police can better do their real jobs. I'd much rather have my police working to solve violent crimes than harassing lettuce pickers.
Anyway, kudos to you, once again.
Okay, but given your example of Jose and Juanita, isn't it Jose and Juanita who are more likely to be there illegally?
ReplyDeleteIf there is a problem with illegal immigrants in that state, how do you propose they find the people who are there illegaly?
And personally, I'm one of those guys who feels that if you've done nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about.
Thanks for posting this and encouraging people to think about what is going on.
ReplyDeleteKevin, any law that singles people out because of their race, color, sex or sexual orientation is a bad law. That is what SB1070 does. The RCMP in Canada were heavily criticized for singling out First Nation People for "special treatment". In the Southern USA, it was Black people. Now it is Hispanics. There is no way you can make any of this sound like the right thing to do!
ReplyDeleteArizona tried it once before in the early 80's by canceling Martin Luther King Day. Stevie Wonder canceled a sold out concert, the NBA pulled their head offices out of the State and hundreds if not thousands of conventions and conferences were canceled in protest. The pressure from businesses got the law reversed. That Governor set his sights on Blacks. This one has her sights set on Hispanics. Both were wrong and neither will get away with it.
I ask again...
ReplyDeleteGiven your example of Jose and Juanita, isn't it Jose and Juanita who are more likely to be there illegally?
If there is a problem with illegal immigrants in that state, how do you propose they find the people who are there illegaly?
I've read the entire text of the bill and can't find anywhere where the law singles out anyone other than those actually breaking the law.
ReplyDeleteFurther, the bill even states "The attorney general or county attorney shall not investigate complaints that are based solely on race, color or national origin."
You can read it here...
http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf
So where is this racism that everyone is talking about?
The problem will be in how the law is enacted and enforced. These stats will not be kept but after a year if we could see the records it would be interesting to see how many white Americans, Canadians, German, Italian, Dutch and even Japanese and east Indian people are questioned under this law compared to the number of Latinos. I would put my money on a 1000 to 1 ratio.
ReplyDeleteWe all know this law is aimed at Latinos and it is pointless to argue the point any further. You and Sheriff Joe are about the only people who think it is good and Sheriff Joe has been photographed being chummy with some of the Nazis who seem to be rapidly moving to AZ.
You self described "lefty's" can never come up with a realistic answer to a problem other than saying that somebody else's answer is no good.
ReplyDeleteOnce again, what's your answer to the problem?
And if you don't think there is a problem then your problem is with the immigration laws, not the people who are trying to enforce them.
1) Enforce the laws that are there now. There is no need to add new ones.
ReplyDelete2) Accept the fact that people will be crossing the border to work. This labour is needed as much by the USA as it is by the people crossing the border to find the work. Make a legal way for them to do this and collect taxes from them. Eliminate the up to 20 year waiting period for a work permit. Fine the hell out of anyone hiring anyone who is still an "illegal". Let ICE look after the "illegals" and let the police solve crime again.
2) Bring the military home and station them along the border. Stop and thoroughly search every vehicle traveling in either direction. Stop the flow of drugs and the counter flow of cash and guns. If necessary, subsidize the pay and training of Mexico's military in order to produce a proud, well paid, well equipped and highly trained force that can successfully take on the narcos. This would be way cheaper than dealing with the drug problem in the USA.
I am not saying this is the perfect plan. It is probably flawed but it is a place to start thinking about it. The USA just has to decide if they actually want to solve these two problems.
I absolutely agree with all 3 of your points. Well, we could argue further about bringing the military home, but that can wait for another day. But I think the bill that we're arguing about is trying to accomplish your point number 1, which is federal law that is NOT being adequately enforced.
ReplyDeleteAnd regarding your point about me and Sheriff Joe...
http://people-press.org/report/613/arizona-immigration-law
Croft, you said:
ReplyDelete"Not me, I will enter MX through CA or TX first.
I think that is an excellent idea. May I suggest you cross at Mexicali/Calexico and then take MX2 across Sonona to Sana Anna where you have staid before. In this way you avoid AZ entirely and punish them to the maximum.
You spoke of Arizona's refusing to honor Martin Luther King Day and then backing off. What you did not bring up is their 'barbaric' refusal to go on Day Light Saving Time. This was one of the early laws passed by the Father of the Progressive Movement in the United States, President Woodrow Wilson.
The state has a long history of such behavior; plus being the home of Barry Goldwater on top of it all. The shame of it all - I'm proud to say I grew up in the state!