Poll:
Do you think the City of Austin should end all city business with the State of Arizona?
The Austin City Council took steps against Arizona and its recently passed immigration law. In a unanimous vote Thursday, the council passed a resolution to ban travel and business ties with Arizona unless it’s related to public health or safety.
“This is not something that we believe is right for Texas or any part of the country," said Austin Mayor Pro-Tem Mike Martinez. “We don’t believe that potentially discriminatory practices are something we want to engage in.”
The city's boycott of Arizona sends a strong message to the Grand Canyon State.
“We are really happy that this passed and that the City of Austin has taken concrete actions against the new law in Arizona,” said Caroline Keating-Guerra with Austin Immigrant Rights Coalition.
But not everyone backs the ban.
“I am very much against it,” said Tim Lucas. “Basically what the city has done is they shot down federal law which is now state law in Arizona and dealing with illegal immigration and problems that come with it.”
The Arizona law authorizes officers to determine a person's immigration status when “reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who is unlawfully present in the United State.” Although Arizona's law has been modified to forbid police from using race to stop people, opponents say racial profiling is inevitable.
“It's about targeting people who look a certain way which is racial profiling which is unconstitutional,” said Keating-Guerra
“The law can say that racial profiling will not happen,” said Martinez. “But the law says if you suspect based on dialect and appearance and dress that’s a forum of profiling.”
Supporters of the immigration law disagree.
“It's not racial profiling,” argued Lucas. “They are using the same laws the federal government is using they were very careful when they were constructing that law they wanted to make sure they weren’t doing anything that would cause them problems with that type of thing.”
According to a recent memo, from May 2009 to April 2010, 45 employees from six different departments, including council offices, traveled to Arizona at a cost of nearly $43,000. Five employees will be traveling to Arizona this month for three separate events. Because the trips were already scheduled, the ban will not affect them. Right now Austin has no contracts or investments with Arizona.
YOUR OPINION
Do you agree with the council's decision? Vote in KVUE's poll to the right of this story.
