Austin City Council is preparing to limit city travel to Arizona and ending business relations with the state also. In the article by Sarah Coppola it says that Austin will protest the new Arizona law that will give law enforcement the right to arrest anyone who the suspect is illegal. The law requires that people must carry immigration documents to prove they are here legally and it is a crime if they do not carry these documents with them at all times. "The law is overreaching and does not represent values that we care about or possess," Austin City Council Member Mike Martinez said. People in Austin believe it is important to send a strong message to Arizona and show them that this law is unconstitutional and not what Texas stands for. Governor Rick Perry also stated that this law would not be right for Texas. Which the state of Texas has been known for rejecting harsh immigration laws. Mayor Lee Leffingwell will introduce a resolution on travel and business ban that the council will decide on may 13th. Other cities like Los Angeles and Washington also are getting ready to set a ban on the same ideas of traveling and business. San Francisco already had banned city officials from traveling to Arizona. The city of Austin doesn’t have any information about how many business trips city employees take to Arizona or if they have any business ties but they are working on getting that data together. Two Texas law makers who were not named said they will introduce a same bill when the legislature meets. Perry said on Thursday "I fully recognize and support a state's right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas." Perry believes Texas should instead focus should be on border security. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the U.S. Senate that the Justice Department review is underway to determine if the law is unconstitutional. Leffingwell said that he usually doesn’t like to take a stance on stuff outside Austin but, "Arizona's legislation potentially has a direct impact on our employees, and is generally so offensive that I believe it demands our attention."
I believe that Austin is making a good decision to protest and ban business traveling to Arizona and any business ties they have with the state until this law is removed. This law takes effect in August and will require law enforcement to detain people who they think are illegal without any documentation. I think this will lead to racial profiling, even though the state said they are training their law enforcement not to profile the people which I think is not even possible. I’m glad to see Perry not support this law because a lot of states already made it clear they want nothing to do with Arizona and it is the least liked state right now. If Texas were even close to passing this law if or when it is proposed like the article said there will be a huge back lash to a lot of political figures who support this. This will also affect Texas in the future like we learned in class that in the near future Hispanics will be the majority of the population in Texas and people will have to run campaigns that will appeal to them. This is not a smart move for any state to do because of the rise in population of Hispanics. Even though Austin might not be able to cancel every trip to Arizona or lose all contact with them, it shows Arizona that we and many other cities don’t support them and it will hurt in the long run and this will help our city officials from being in such a place where they can be stopped and asked information.
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. I whole heartily disagree with this position. Arizona is a sovereign state and the citizens of Arizona have a right to pass any law they see fit to govern themselves. The law in question has not even been enacted yet. It is impossible to say what will or will not happen in the future. To say that preventing racial profiling is impossible is not a fair statement in my opinion. The citizens of Arizona know the problem they are dealing with and are taking action to remedy the problem. There may be a way to enforce this law without profiling or locking up anyone and everyone, I just don’t know. I don’t think it is fair for everyone else to judge before any action has taken place. I agree with Gov Perry’s position on the issue. I am against the law in its present form but I will not jump to judgment and will not condemn Arizona for trying to take care of their problems proactively.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I don’t believe this falls into the purview of the city consul. The job of the city consul is to run the city of Austin. Not to try and send a purely political message to another state. The city of Austin has enough problems and should spend some time focusing on those problems. Maybe worrying about the “bike boulevard” or taking care of the homeless population. Instead the city consul would rather boycott another state which will only end up hurting Americans by cost the state jobs and revenue.
We should all take a deep breath, step back, and wait to see what the state actually does with this new law. Maybe it will be a big success and racial profiling will not be an issue. Maybe it will be a huge failure and be repealed. Either way, we should give Arizona the time and space to work it out before we jump in.