La Raza ends boycott of Arizona

immigration protest

La Raza announced late Friday that it was calling off its boycott of Arizona which has been in place since SB 1070 became law in May 2010.

The organization said the boycott served its purpose of stopping Arizona from passing additional laws, and that it was effective in stopping some other states from passing immigration laws. La Raza said it is now time to focus on national immigration reform.

From The Arizona Republic:

The National Council of La Raza said it was canceling its boycott because it successfully discouraged other states from enacting similar laws, and the boycott imposed a hardship on the workers, businesses and organizations it aimed to help.

Five other states, Alabama, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina and Utah, passed similar laws and all of them face legal challenges and injunctions, according to La Raza.

The Washington-based group said that effective immediately it and two other La Raza-associated groups would ask other organizations to suspend their Arizona boycotts.

La Raza also said the boycott spurred political results in Arizona, namely an increase in Latino voters and defeat in the Legislature of more proposed immigration laws, including a measure that would have changed how U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants are granted citizenship.

Economic losses to the state because of this and other boycotts are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Scot Kersgaard has been managing editor of a political newspaper, editor and co-owner of a ski town newspaper, executive editor of eight high-tech magazines (where he worked with current Apple CEO Tim Cook), deputy press secretary to a U.S. Senator, and an outdoors columnist at the Rocky Mountain News. He has an English degree from the University of Washington. He was awarded a fellowship to study internet journalism at the University of Maryland's Knight Center for Specialized Journalism. He was student body president in college. He spends his free time hiking and skiing.

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