Boycott Arizona? No way, It’s a Cheap Publicity Stunt

[Confederate Kahanist]

http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/chadaaron/april-30-2010/boycott-arizona-no-way-it-s-cheap-publicity-stunt.html?jid=468895&lid=9&rid=3437&tid=538663



By Chad MacDonald, Updated Friday, April 30, 2010, 3:00 PM EDT - posted on NumbersUSA

On the day before Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona signed SB1070 into law, Rep. Raul Grijalva called for a boycott of his own state. He opposes the new immigration enforcement law. Rep. Grijalva is telling people like me not to spend my money in Arizona because this new law might lead to racial profiling. I read the law and listened to Gov. Brewer’s speech 6 times. Police officers may only question the immigration status of a person after they have already made lawful contact and when they have “reasonable suspicion” and “may not solely consider race, color, or national origin” to believe that the person is in the U.S. illegally.

This Arizona law will save lives in Arizona much like Terry v. Ohio has been doing for the last 40-plus years across the country. This 1968 decision by the United States Supreme Court, which held that the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures is not violated when a police officer stops a suspect on the street and searches him without probable cause to arrest, if the police officer has a “reasonable suspicion” that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime.

The new Arizona immigration enforcement law is being called the toughest law in all 50 of these great United States. It is also the only state law that mirrors the federal laws designed to protect citizens of this great country from a war that is happening all along our Southern border. If the federal government would secure the border and adequately enforce our immigration laws, Arizona would not have had to take matters into their own hands. The federal government’s inaction has forced Arizona in an immigration minefield.

In protest of this law, Rep. Grijalva has called for a massive boycott of his own state. A boycott of the very people who elected him to office, Rep. Grijalva is supposed to represent U.S. workers voted for him. His boycott could now put many of them out of a job.

“We are calling on organizations not to schedule conventions and conferences in Arizona until it recognizes civil rights… and due process.”

I have never before seen a Congressman drive business away from his own district. Rep. Grijalva is trying to put businesses that employ the citizens he represents out of work. I can only imagine his new campaign slogan “Vote for Grijalva to Stop Business in Arizona!” Exactly what is he thinking? The unemployment rate in Arizona is 9.4% and not getting any better. Any move a congressman makes in this economy has to be about jobs, jobs, jobs.

In an open note and letter to Rep. Grijalva yesterday on Facebook I asked him how he felt about the 200,000 Latinos employed in the tourism and restaurant business in Arizona. Many of them are legal immigrants! Won’t a boycott of Arizona put them out of a job? There was no response. While I was happily stimulating the economy of Arizona, I asked U.S. workers there what they thought of this boycott and how they felt about the new immigration law.

The proposed boycott of Arizona is a cheap publicity stunt. It is counter-productive to the U.S. worker and it is completely illogical.

This boycott is a harmful intimidation tactic that hurts the very people who voted Rep. Grijalva into office.

Jumping on the boycott bandwagon is San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom who imposed a moratorium on city employee travel to the state of Arizona for official business and announced the creation of a task force to determine how best to extricate the city from its Arizona-related contracts.

San Francisco is a sanctuary city whose boycott of Arizona is simply a marketing ploy to drive economic traffic into their own city. San Francisco would love to take Mexican tourism dollars away from Arizona and put it in their own coffers. Yes you read that correctly, Arizona does enjoy and profit from upper-class Mexican tourism. San Francisco obviously wants to take a bite of that apple.

But don’t blame California. Sen. Dianne Feinstein when asked what she thought about the San Francisco boycott of Arizona replied, “I do not think that is a smart thing to do.” She also said in the company of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid that "I don't think boycotts or things of that nature really help. They just polarize people"

How do you explain to the legal Latino immigrants of Arizona that the city of San Francisco is no longer spending money in their state and now going after their tourists as a result of Rep. Grijalva’s publicity stunt for re-election?

On Twitter we retweeted a post going around “Today there are a lot of pissed off Hispanic business owners in Arizona. Why are you idiots boycotting US? #sb1070”

Even business owners in Mexico are angry.

“It’s a real worry,” said Carlos Alfredo Ortiz, 39, who owns a restaurant in Nogales, Sonora. “While the idea of a boycott of Arizona sounds good because it would send a message, it would hurt a lot of innocent people in Arizona who had nothing to do with passing the law.”

The people of Arizona have problems: their schools are over-run, the emergency rooms are being taxed, crime is rampant in border zones, and drug trafficking is costing American lives. Unemployment is 9.4% and they need jobs. This immigration enforcement law will help solve those problems and 70% of Arizonans agree.

I enjoyed my time in Phoenix and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to contribute financially to the citizens of Arizona.

CHAD MACDONALD is the Director of Social Media Marketing for NumbersUSA

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