** UPDATE: On May 13, Los Angeles’ City Council approved a travel boycott to Arizona. Also, an AP- Univision poll found that 67% of Latinos oppose the new law, while a Pew Research survey shows 59% approve of the law.**
The immigration law in Arizona has not ceased to stir incensed sentiments around the country. From the NBA Spurs and Suns to Latino celebrities of every kind and background, the law has been challenged for its connotations of racial profiling and apparent support of discrimination. At the surface, the law may seem to imply:
Deportation will fix crime
Law enforcement agents have the ability to distinguish illegal aliens, without broadly intruding on the privacy of legal residents and citizens of the US
All persons in Arizona will have to carry an official identification at all times in order to prove their status or be subject to the actions of law enforcement officers – even many ultra-conservative persons in the US oppose the concept of a national identification as being too intrusive on personal privacy.
If only for these three precepts, we could engage in a debate until true immigration reform emerges and helps– compassionately, intelligently, and permanently—provide much needed direction to deal with illegal entry into the country by ANY group.
Even for the millions of Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. who are in the country legally, the law represents an ominous precedent. They fear that other border states will follow suit. They fear that they will be unjustly targeted by law enforcement agencies because of their physical appearance. They fear that they will be displaced. And they fear that nobody is really saying that these are unfounded.
In recent days, Latinos around the country again organized by the thousands in pacific marches that demand immigration reform now. Latino influencers organized the marches and drove people by twitter, online, through radio and print, and by word of mouth all connected to May 1—Labor Day for many Latin American countries. Activities like this have continued and the pressure will be on until the June implementation deadline for the new law.
On May 6th, a group of Latino organizations led by the National Council of La Raza called for a boycott of the state of Arizona, cancelling or not planning any conventions, conferences and other activities in the state.
In a state that is 30% Hispanic, Arizona’s problems and backlash from the signed law are putting the issue of immigration front and center in the public’s view. Some groups are urging the state to push the law’s enforcement back for a year. In the media, the opposing views are even greater as Arizona has not put much effort into reaching out and proactively and markedly clarify among stakeholders what this law is and isn’t—in Spanish and in English. The local issue has become national news and needs to be treated as such by the state.
In the end, the need for reform has once again become evident as has the need for more information and dialogue on immigration, on Hispanics, on ‘the other’.
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