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Civil Rights & Labor Organizations Announce Boycott to Protest Arizona Immigration Law
Take action by Friday, December 31, 2010
In the wake of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s decision to sign SB 1070, state legislation that essentially sanctions racial profiling as accepted police practice, the undersigned organizations join a growing number of groups across the country in taking a stand against this radical law. We have agreed to take five major steps to protest the injustice that this law will perpetrate. Specifically, the undersigned organizations will:
- 1. Not hold any conventions,
conferences, special events, or major meetings
involving significant travel to Arizona
from out of state, while this law is in
force.
- Other civil rights and social justice organizations
- Churches and religious organizations
- Unions and other worker representatives
- Corporations and trade associations of businesses
- Representatives of federal, state, or local government, including trade associations representing such governments Student groups
2. Strongly discourage their affiliates, chapters, or members from holding any conventions, conferences, special events, or major meetings involving significant travel to Arizona from out of state, while this law is in force.
3. Widely disseminate the adverse consequences of this legislation to their key stakeholders, for the purpose of encouraging informed judgments regarding whether stakeholders should hold, convene, sponsor, or otherwise support any conventions, conferences, special events, or major meetings involving significant travel to Arizona from out of state, while this law is in force. Such stakeholders include, but are not limited to:
- 4. Call on all other major American
institutions to consider choosing
alternative locations for conventions,
conferences, special events, or major meetings
involving significant travel to Arizona from
out of state, while this law is in force.
- For example, it would be highly inappropriate for Major League Baseball to hold its All-Star Game in a state where a significant portion of the players on the field would be at risk of being profiled, once they are off the field and out of uniform.
- Similarly, we believe it would be inappropriate for actors, musicians, comedians, or other artists to perform in a state where they themselves, as well as a significant part of their audience, are at risk of being profiled.
- 5. Call on their affiliates, chapters,
members, stakeholders, all major American
institutions, and people of conscience
everywhere to carefully consider whether the
dollars they spend as consumers of goods and
services could end up, directly or indirectly,
supporting the perpetuation of this unjust law.
- For example, some have called for consumers to avoid attending sports events of teams based in Arizona.
- Similarly, in determining whether to purchase products or services produced by corporations based in Arizona, others are reviewing the contributions and other actions of these corporations to identify whether and to what extent they contributed to the enactment of this unjust law.
The undersigned organizations do not take these steps lightly. We are aware that, in the short term, these actions may adversely affect some Arizonans who opposed this unjust law and others who are likely to be its principal targets. Before announcing these actions, we consulted extensively with our affiliates, chapters, and members in Arizona. Ultimately, we came to the same conclusions:
- Any short-term adverse impacts on these communities that result from this campaign are far outweighed by the inherent, permanent, and systemic profiling and discrimination that will occur as a result of this unjust law.
- The law is so extreme, and its proponents appear so immune to an appeal to reason, that nothing short of these extraordinary measures is likely to result in the law’s repeal. Thus, we commit to continuing this campaign until such time that SB 1070 is repealed, overturned by the courts, and/or superseded by comprehensive federal immigration reform.
Thus, we commit to continuing this campaign until such time that SB 1070 is repealed, overturned by the courts, and/or superseded by comprehensive federal immigration reform.
To add your organization's name to this pledge, please contact Jennifer Edwards at (202) 785-1670, jedwards@nclr.org
A. Philip Randolph Institute
Asian
American Justice Center
(AAJC)
ASPIRA
Center for Community Change
(CCC)
Center for Training & Careers,
Inc.
Community Coalition for Immigrants in
Northwest Indiana
- Hammond Hispanic Community
Committee
Ministerial Alliance of Northwest Indiana
Union Benefica Mexicana of Northwest Indiana
Funders for LGBTQ Issues
Hispanic
Association of Colleges and Universities
(HACU)
Hispanic Federation
Hispanic
National Bar Association
Japanese American
Citizens League
Laotian American National
Alliance (LANA)
Labor Council for Latin
American Advancement (LCLAA)
Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
League
of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC)
MANA, A National Latina
Organization
National Action Network
(NAN)
National Asian Pacific American
Women's Forum
National Association of
Hispanic Federal Executives (NAHFE)
National
Conference of Puerto Rican Women
(NACOPRW)
National Council of La Raza
(NCLR)
National Hispana Leadership Institute
(NHLI)
National Hispanic Caucus of State
Legislators (NHCSL)
National Hispanic
Council on Aging
National Hispanic Media
Coalition (NHMC)
National Institute for
Latino Policy (NILP)
National Korean
American Service & Education Consortium
(NAKASEC)
National Puerto Rican Coalition
(NPRC)
People For the American Way
SER
Jobs for Progress
Service Employees
International Union (SEIU)
Society for
Public Health Education The Leadership
Conference on Civil and Human Rights
United
Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)
United
States Hispanic Leadership Institute
(USHLI)
Download Civil Rights and Labor Organizations Announce Boycott to Protest Arizona Immigration Law
AFL-CIO: Federal Government Must Cut Ties with Arizona Law Enforcement
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Read the AFL-CIO LCCR letter here.