L.A. County Considers Joining City in Arizona Boycott
L.A. County is considering joining the city in a boycott of Arizona over its recent law allowing local officials to investigate the legal status of anyone they have occasion to interact with.
At least one County Supervisor, though, thinks that's a terrible idea. More from the L.A. Times:
Characterizing it as "stupid," L.A. County Supervisor Mike Antonovich has criticized a proposal by two colleagues [Supervisors Gloria Molina and Zev Yaroslavsky] to have the county government boycott Arizona over the state's crackdown on illegal immigration."This knee-jerk reaction to support lawbreakers at the expense of law-abiding legal immigrants and other residents is irresponsible," Antonovich said in a statement.... The motion...would direct county officials to suspend all travel to Arizona and investigate withdrawing county investments and canceling contracts.
Los Angeles has long had an explicit policy the opposite of Arizona's: L.A. cops do not try to enforce federal immigration policy. Earlier this month, our City Council chose to ban most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with Arizona businesses.
L.A. Policy Chief Charlie Beck went to the Attorney General of the United States to mark his objections to Arizona's new policy.
As the L.A. Times reported, local transportation-based agencies wonder about the wisdom of a boycott:
Officials with the Port of Los Angeles and Los Angeles International Airport expressed concern about potential effects on those agencies. The council asked boards overseeing the port, airport and city utilities to review all contracts with ties to Arizona, however.LAX receives $22 million in revenue from two Arizona-based airlines -- US Airways and Mesa Air. The port relies on three Arizona firms for new, low-emission big rigs, part of the city's "clean truck'' program that is expected to reduce truck-related pollution at the port by 80% by 2012.
As CBS News notes, the boycott will not effect energy:
[City Council member Janice] Hahn said the Los Angeles boycott also won't affect the city's Department of Water and Power, which has wind farm and nuclear energy contracts in Arizona.
Still, an Arizona utility official sent a letter to Mayor Villaraigosa threatening to cut offL.A.'s power if the city didn't reconsider. You don't have to approve of Arizona's heavy handed and civil rights-violating approach to immigration enforcement to question whether hitting the state's workers and businesses is the right way to express one's displeasure with a decision made by politicians.
The image associated with this post was taken by Flickr user Wolfgang Staudt. It was used under user Creative Commons license.
