Arizona Travel Boycott Gains Momentum

Associations and municipalities pull meetings in Arizona; some individuals simply won't go

Municipal employees in Boulder, a very liberal place that has been described as a city with its own foreign policy, will not be traveling to Arizona on city business in the wake of stringent regulations seeking to identify and detain illegal immigrants. Specifically, it is now a state crime to be in Arizona illegally and requires police and other law-enforcement agents to check documents of people they "reasonably" suspect to be illegal. Those opposed to this law, which requires local law enforcement agencies essentially to act as an adjunct of the federal government and stop individuals with or without additional cause (like a traffic violation), with a demand to produce papers has all the signs of racial profiling.  Mexican citizens have been cautioned against visiting Arizona, and a number groups have begun pulling meetings out of the state.

Arizona has suffered self-inflicted tourism wounds before. It reportedly lost some 170 conventions and the Super Bowl in the early 1990s from boycotts because it refused to approve the Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday holiday. Overlapping that boycott was one against Colorado, after state voters approved a confusing, anti-gay constitutional amendment that was never put into effect but that earned it the nickname, "The Hate State." It seems as if Arizona is poised to take that mantle, with social media calls to avoid Arizona going viral. The Arizona hotel industry trade organization has launched its own defense Facebook page.

In addition to the Boulder City Council vote to boycott Arizona, Boston, San Francisco and Oakland have done so. An immigration lawyers convention has pulled out of Scottsdale, ABC reported that the law, if not repealed, could cost Phoenix the 2011 All-Star Game. The 2009 All-Star Game brought on the order of $60 million. It is estimated that up to 40 percent of Major League Baseball players at all levels (including Minor League and farm organizations) are Latino. Some interviewed on camera say the law does not disturb them, but some of them might well come from countries with random police stops and a requirement to carry a nation identity card.

While some entities and individuals are avoiding Arizona while this law is on the books, others predictably think it's a damn good thing, by God! A USA Today online  poll currently shows that two-thirds of the respondents clicked on "I'm more excited than ever to visit the state." The remaining third split their clicks among four other opinions.


Repressive policy. Support from some. Anger from others. Backlash and reverse-backlash. Defensive actions. Posturing politicians. Innocent people (low-wage hospitality workers in particular) caught in the cross-fire. Business as usual.