Activist plans boycott during Super Bowl

[mapwife]

Published: 07.21.2007

Activist plans boycott during Super Bowl
By Howard Fischer
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES
PHOENIX — An organizer of two marches for immigration reform is planning a Hispanic boycott of their jobs during next year's Super Bowl week, in hopes of crippling the state's restaurant and hotel industry.
Elias Bermudez said the decision follows passage of a new state law to crack down on companies that hire undocumented workers. That law is supposed to take effect Jan. 1 — just weeks before the Feb. 8 Super Bowl at University of Phoenix stadium in Glendale.
But Bermudez, president of Inmigrantes Sin Fronteras (Immigrants Without Borders) said the boycott is really the culmination of frustration with a series of what he sees as anti-immigrant measures enacted in Arizona, many enacted by voters by large margins. Those include denial of certain public benefits and a requirement for those not here legally to pay the higher nonresident tuition at state colleges and universities.
"Seventy percent of voters do not want us here," he said. "They think we are a detriment to our state."
And by "us" Bermudez said he means not just the estimated 500,000 people in Arizona illegally but also U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent like himself.
He said the boycott, and the effect on the tourism industry, will give Arizonans "a little motivation" to see that the migrant community is a necessary part of the state economy.
The chairman of the Super Bowl host committee quickly sought to distance his panel from the controversy. Mike Kennedy said the committee "plays no role in state or federal legislation dealing with immigration." The prepared statement goes on to say the committee is "confident Arizonans understand the significance of hosting the world's premiere sporting event and will step forward to proudly and successfully host Super Bowl XLII."
Bermudez acknowledged it is risky asking people to give up a week of work for a political cause. But he said he believes Hispanics and those who sympathize with the cause will make the sacrifice.
http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/printDS/192758

[WhatMattersMost]

Seventy percent of voters do not want us here," he said. "They think we are a detriment to our state."

Hmmm . . . . . .can we say clueless? At what point do these illegal morons give up and go home. This is our country, it does not belong to big business that is why its called AMERICA, not CORPORATE AMERICA.

[crazybird]

Boycott away. If any business is that filled with illegals or totally employing that particular "race".....there's alot more going on. Can start adding discrimination to the list as well. Sure can't go into any other business and not see a balance of people doing jobs. EOE and all.....

[redbadger]

YEP!!!!!! Boycott AWAY!!!!!!!!!

[fedupinwaukegan]

The Super Bowl is an American Sacred Institution. Mess with this and they are only going to anger a LOT more Americans to join against them. The marches last year woke me up -this will wake up some more.

If I'm living on the edge I wouldn't give up a week's work. It will flop...

This is just an all around baddddd idea. We have a boycott going on in my town right now. Guess what. This greek guy who is supporting the 'No 287g' crowd recently said HIS business is down by 30%. In other words, the Americans and supporters who have seen the orange 'No 287g' sign in his window have refused to go there. Can we say -backfire?

[NCByrd]

It's great the idiots have let the business know this far in advance!! Hopefully by then, most businesses will have legitimate workers.

[Rockfish]

And by "us" Bermudez said he means not just the estimated 500,000 people in Arizona illegally but also U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent like himself.

Here's the problem..they want to make everyone believe that US hispanic citizens are not wanted or are hated by us. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The legal Hispanic US citizens are valued and are here to stay because they are citizens and have earned the right to be here. Illegal immigrants don't belong here, they've broken the law, just like their illegal employers have. Get them out, get them all out who are not citizens and prosecute the scum that hires them.

[Jean]

July 25, 2007
Super Bowl boycott misses its target
Tribune Editorial
Since the earliest days of the American civil rights movement, boycotts have been effective weapons. Large groups of people who refused to buy goods or services would often win their cause by striking at the pocketbooks of those who would oppress or discriminate against them.

But a proposed boycott by Hispanics — whether citizens, legal immigrants or illegal ones — of jobs in mostly the hospitality and restaurant industries at the time of next February’s Super Bowl XLII in Glendale wouldn’t target any oppressors or discriminators. Instead it would zero in on those industries and the jobs they offer, making them suffer at the expense of pressuring those who have the power to enact reasonable immigration reform: Congress and state legislatures.

The choice of these targets by Elias Bermudez, president of Immigrantes Sin Fronteras, or Immigrants Without Borders — who told Capitol Media Services’ Howard Fischer in Saturday’s Tribune of his boycott plan — is curious at best and indefensible at worst. Many Arizona businesses have supported the hiring of illegal immigrants, and several businesspeople are plaintiffs in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a new state law penalizing those who hire them.

Attempting to cripple activities related to the Super Bowl would be an attempt to injure an economy that would provide financial hope to immigrants who, under reform of laws governing them, would work, pay taxes and pay their bills without assistance from government or the private sector.

Moreover, the Super Bowl raises an enormous amount of money for charities, which should not be made to suffer over something they had no hand in creating.

Bermudez should think much more about all this. He is, he told Fischer, frustrated with immigration-related ballot measures approved by voters. But he misinterpreted those large-margin votes as racist — that is, not only against illegal immigrants, but all Hispanics. “Seventy percent of voters do not want us here,â€