How Do You Solve a Problem Like La Migra?
According to Seattle's city council, you boycott it.
Monday, in an act of protest against Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070, The council passed a resolution to boycott the country’s newest red-headed step-state. Seattle will join L.A, San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Washington D.C., Boston, and a host of others in their efforts to end Arizona’s controversial law - a law that seems to throw the door open to racial profiling - and petition the federal government to act on immigration reform.
Resolution 31214 calls Arizona Senate Bill 1070 “a step in the wrong direction,” and requests that “City Departments refrain from sending City employees to the State of Arizona and refrain from entering into new contracts with businesses headquartered in the State of Arizona.”
Dan Nolte, who works for council member, and resolution petitioner, Sally Clark, says, “Of the 1200 blanket contracts the city had in 2009, three of them are headquartered in Arizona. One contract for Red Light Cameras that’s a little over $1M. Then a GIS contract for $11K, and a purchasing service for $46K…The Council is asking City Departments to look at state headquarter location for new contracts from here moving forward,” said Nolte. He also said the city will not go back and cancel old contracts.
Publicola.com has a list of Arizona companies that do business in Seattle for anyone interested in enacting a boycott of his or her own. Some of the more recognizable names are U-Haul, Dial Soaps, Greyhound, U.S. Airways, Taco Time, and Clear Channel’s outdoor advertising.
It may be worth noting that Allied Waste is also based in Arizona. The garbage collection company recently endured a brief strike, which threatened garbage pick up to parts of the Puget Sound Area. We do not encourage anyone to boycott Allied Waste’s services. We really, really don’t.
An article printed in The Arizona Republic on May 11th ($90 million at risk in boycott of Arizona) says that Metro-Phoenix “risks losing as much as $90 million in hotel and convention business over the next five years.” That’s a lot of dough, and though tourism in Arizona counts for much of its economy, hotel and convention losses in Phoenix would surely be only the tip of the fiscal iceberg.
For a state that has already had more than its fair share of financial struggles in the wake of the recent economic/real estate collapse, further losses may be painful to the state's bottom line for many years to come. But don’t expect that to change many minds in Arizona. For many, 1070 is no cry for help, it’s a confident step. Soon after the passage of the Bill, governor Jan Brewer (the replacement for democrat and current Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, (guess which one has made a bigger homeland security splash)), passed Arizona House Bill 2281, which bans public schools from teaching ethnic courses, a move that had Stanley Fish in The New York Times dubbing Arizona “The Gift That Keeps On Giving.”
With boycotts sprouting up across the country, however, there has also been a national tide of support for the beleaguered border state. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 60% of national voters supported Arizona’s new immigration law, while 31% opposed. “Seventy-seven percent of Republicans support the law along with 62% of voters not affiliated with either major party. Democratic voters are evenly divided on the measure.”
Considering the national response to Arizona’s immigration legislation, which takes effect July 28, it seems more and more obvious that immigration reform should be a pressing issue for federal lawmakers. Monday's resolution calls for federal-level immigration reform. Many of the 17 citizens who spoke at the full council session also spoke of the need for federal intervention.
But when addressing the issue on April 28th, President Obama said “We've gone through a tough year, and I've been working Congress pretty hard. So I know there may not be an appetite immediately to dive into another controversial issue.” In the same address, President Obama commented on Governor Brewer’s signing of SB 1070, calling it misguided step and saying the bill threatens “to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and our communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.”
So it looks like Arizona’s immigration problem is out of the federal cards for a while, unless state lawmakers would like to say “just kidding” and take it all back or state courts decide SB 1070 simply doesn’t cut the constitutional mustard. Don’t count on that; Governor Brewer literally stood behind Sarah Palin at a speech a couple of days ago in which Palin denounced Obama’s criticism of the law. The unpopular bill is sure to be a hot topic for a long time to come, though, spurring on plenty of local and national debates. If those debates trickle up Capitol Hill, at least Arizona can take credit for starting things off.
