City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued a statement this morning calling for a "sweeping boycott of Arizona and Arizona-based businesses until this unjust law is repealed or invalidated."
The Arizona law, signed by Gov. Jan Brewer on Friday, makes it a state crime to be in the country illegally. Additionally, it makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and requires police officers to question those they suspect are illegal immigrants.
Perhaps the Fortune 500 Arizona-based business most vulnerable to a boycott is US Airways.
Make no mistake, it's a racist law. "A law whose real intention is to criminalise migrants, both legal and ‘illegal’, it is to make all brown people a suspect," observes human rights blogger Rick B.
Notwithstanding this observation, anti-immigrant sentiment alone may not be sufficient to account for the new law. Arizona Senate Bill 1070 stands to benefit companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). CCA
CCA is an important employer in some parts of Arizona:
Is a boycott of Arizona justified? It would appear as if the new law is at least as much a product of run-away corporatism as anti-immigrant fanaticism. Given that Arizona politicians have positioned their friends to profit from a racist law at the expense of the whole country, it seems entirely fitting that Arizona-based companies should be made to pay for it.
Make no mistake, it's a racist law. "A law whose real intention is to criminalise migrants, both legal and ‘illegal’, it is to make all brown people a suspect," observes human rights blogger Rick B.
has partnered with the federal government to detain close to 1 million undocumented people in the past 5 years… Thanks to political connections and lobby spending, it dominates the industry of immigrant detention. CCA now has close to 10,000 new beds under development in anticipation of continued demand.In an article describing "How politicians, the media, and corporations profit from immigration policies destined to fail," Tanya Golash-Boza writes: "Much of the success of CCA is due to its lobbying efforts and political connections, combined with the increased rates of detention for immigrants." According to The Business of Detention one lobbyist for CCA was "Phillip J. Perry, son-in-law of Vice President Dick Cheney, who was appointed general counsel for DHS [Department of Homeland Security]." In 2007, "CCA spent $3.25 million lobbying members of Congress to approve funding that would ultimately lead to increased spending on immigration detention."
CCA is an important employer in some parts of Arizona:
As a partnership prison, CCA [Corrections Corporations of America] has been credited with helping Pinal County, Arizona, with being ranked No. 1 in a Money Magazine survey ranking the top 25 counties that have experienced the greatest job growth in the past eight years.CCA facilities in Arizona contracting with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) include the Eloy and Florence correctional centers -- two of nearly one thousand immigration detention facilities nationwide (map). The number of immigrants housed in ICE facilities have increased 300% since 1994. The facilities are funded by federal tax dollars: "Based on the amount budgeted for this fiscal year, U.S. taxpayers will pay about $141 a night — the equivalent of a decent hotel room — for each immigrant detained." CCA boasts that its prisons bring economic benefits: "communities in which CCA facilities are located realize many benefits, including new, career-driven employment opportunities, increased demand for local goods and services, and additional tax revenue." Of course, a company like CCA is not creating new wealth. Rather, it is a mechanism for transferring taxpayer dollars from the many to the few.
Is a boycott of Arizona justified? It would appear as if the new law is at least as much a product of run-away corporatism as anti-immigrant fanaticism. Given that Arizona politicians have positioned their friends to profit from a racist law at the expense of the whole country, it seems entirely fitting that Arizona-based companies should be made to pay for it.
Arizona can pass race base laws, pass Birthers laws and the state can continue to boycott Martin Luther King Day, well the rest of the Country can boycott the state of Arizona and spank them where it hurts them the most their pocket book. Their phony patriotism is sickening, they are just racists going by another name. We all know you are just itching to put a sheet on their head? Let’s face it the Republicans had eight years to deal with health care, immigration, climate change and financial oversight and governance and they failed. It appears that the Republican Party is only good at starting wars (two in eight years, with fat contracts to friends of Cheney/Bush) but not at winning wars as seen by the continuing line of body bags that keep coming home. The Republicans party will continue turned inward to their old fashion obstructionist party (and their Confederacy appreciation roots) because they continue to allow a small portions (but very loud portion) of their party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” to rule their party. I will admit that this fringe is very good at playing “Follow the Leader” by listening to their dullard leaders, Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush, Savage, Sarah Bailin, Orly Taitz, Victoria Jackson, Michele Bachmann and the rest of the Blowhards and acting as ill programmed robots (they have already acted against doctors that perform abortions). The Birthers and the Tea party crowd think they can scare, intimidate and force others to go along with them by comments like “This time we came unarmed”, let me tell you something not all ex-military join the fringe militia crazies who don’t pay taxes and run around with face paint in the parks playing commando, the majority are mature and understand that the world is more complicated and grey than the black and white that these simpleton make it out to be and that my friend is the point. The world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. For a party that gave us Abraham Lincoln, it is tragic that the ranks are filled with too many empty suits and the crazy Birthers who have not learned that the way our courts work is that you get a competent lawyer, verifiable facts and present them to a judge, if the facts are real and not half baked internet lies, then, and only then, do you proceed to trial. The Birthers seem to be having a problem with their so called “facts”. Let’s face it no one will take the Birthers seriously until they win a case, but until then, you will continue to appear dumb, crazy or racist, or maybe all three. I heard that Orly Taitz now wants to investigate the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC), she wants to re-establish a family values party, that’s like saying that the Catholic Church cares about the welling being of children in their care, too late for that.
ReplyDeleteThe world is complicated and people like Hamilton, Lincoln, and Roosevelt believed that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now it’s about dancing around the claim of government is the problem.
ReplyDeleteWell put, Montana: It's a complicated world, and some people want to believe in simple answers.
good points. if, in fact, this law is put into practice, there is no way the federal govt would have space to house a dramatic increase in immigrant detainees. Thus, the private sector would step in and offer a quick, expensive solution. I am still confident that this law will be declared unconstitutional. But, that remains to be seen.
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