Gordon condemns hate speech left at day labor center
August 13th, 2008 @ 3:03pm
by Bob McClay/KTAR

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon is upset about a sign someone left at a day labor center in north Phoenix.

The sign was found by a Phoenix police officer in an area where anti-illegal immigration protesters had been standing outside the center near Cave Creek and Bell roads. The sign displays a swastika and reads "Hooray for the slaughtering of the illegals, boo to the beaners."

The mayor said the individual who wrote the message should be ashamed.

"Before, these types of individuals hid under rocks and didn't have a platform, but now they do," Gordon said. "And I'm not, as a mayor, and I know this community won't tolerate it."

Gordon said messages like this show the hatred that is dividing Phoenix over the immigration issue.

Gordon will be discussing immigration next week when he gives the keynote address to the Police Foundation Conference in Washington, D.C.

He'll be telling them about the immigration debate in Phoenix.

"I'm going to be through specifically the cost of the city and the debates that are going through and the inaction that is occurring because what I've learned, is that most people, particularly our federal elected officials, don't understand what we here in Arizona are experiencing," he said.

Gordon said illegal immigration cost the City of Phoenix over $2 million dollars last year.

Gordon was recently appointed chairman of a U.S. Conference of Mayors' Comprehensive Immigration Reform Task Force. The group will make recommendations on immigration to Congress and the president.

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