Arizona's Immigration Law Comes With a Price-$10M Lost And Counting

[babylonsister]

Arizona's Immigration Law Comes With a Price
Chris Good
May 7 2010, 4:53 PM ET | Comment



Several days before Gov. Jan Brewer signed Arizona's controversial immigration bill, Congressman Raul Grijalva called on the rest of the nation to boycott his home state if the new proposal became law. National organizations, Grijalva said, should cancel upcoming conventions slated to be held there.

"If the state follows through with this, the cost will be high," Grijalva warned.

Turns out, he was right: so far, the state has lost between $6 million and $10 million in projected business revenue, with 23 group hotel bookings--from small meetings to large conventions--having been canceled in protest since the stroke of Brewer's pen, according to the Arizona Hotel & Lodging Association.

Hotels don't want to disclose which clients have canceled, for fear of alienating businesses. So far, the most widely publicized cancellation has come from the American Immigration Lawyers Association.

"It's clear that the bill has had an economic impact on the state. It's impossible to say that it hasn't," says Glenn Hamer, CEO of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

more...

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/05/arizonas-immigration-law-comes-with-a-price/56416/

[Oceansaway]

1. K&R...n/t

[rucky]

2. Hope that's 10 million going to non-fascist states instead.

[peacebird]

3. Good!

[rasputin1952]

4. As a former resident of AZ...

i can say that Brewer and a host of other clowns will be gone come the election.

Arizonan's, in general, are not bad people...but they can elect some real doozeys. Even though brewer was not elected, (and she won't be), she's signed her political suicide note. And any district that could elect JD Hayworth has to be made of some really weird people...Hayworth is a complete dolt...statewide, river rocks could beat that asshole...:D

[AndyA]

5. I feel bad for the businesses that will be impacted due to the boycott,

and the people who may not get a job or lose a job because of it.

But some of those hurt will be "conservatives" who promote this kind of crap, so if a conservative loses his or her job, or their business suffers because of their politics, well...they deserve it.

The voters in Arizona are going to have to stop putting people in office that come up with these stupid, anti-American laws. And Arizona isn't the only state, just the first one. Hopefully the pain felt in Arizona will be enough to prevent others from doing the same thing.

The voters in Arizona need to make their feelings known loud and clear come November.

[pinboy3niner]

6. Absolutely. My sympathies are with Sarge and all the others . . .

who may feel the pain of this. But, at least in this case, that pain is likely to be short-lived. First, the courts are likely to overturn the law as unconstitutional (and, in the interim, to stay its implementation pending adjudication).

At the same time, the economic effects of the boycott provide a powerful motivation for AZ legislators to reconsider, and act to repeal the law themselves (and for their constituents to demand they do so).

As much as we would like to spare our friends in AZ the pain of a boycott, there is no practical way to "target" or "limit" a boycott so they won't be hurt. I hope, both for their sake and all of ours, that this will all be over soon, with the law defeated and our friends' lives restored to normal.

[NV Whino]

7. This is classic

"So far, the most widely publicized cancellation has come from the American Immigration Lawyers Association."

[City Lights]

8. ...

:nopity:

I lived in AZ for 5 years during junior's reign. I have no intention of ever going back. :thumbsdown:

[Downtown Hound]

9. Hopefully, this will eventually shake the citizens of Arizona out of their slumber

And they will work to get this law repealed.