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Immigrant Rights Group Calls For Statewide Boycott
POSTED: 4:20 am MST March 9, 2007

DENVER -- Immigrant rights groups are calling for a weeklong economic boycott in Colorado beginning March 25 that would include not sending money to Latin American countries.

Before the boycott, 10 immigrant activists are set to travel to Washington next week to lobby Congress for immigration reform. The groups are calling for a pathway to legalization for illegal immigrants and support for the DREAM Act, which would help undocumented students access college.

"We hope to educate the Congress more about the situation immigrants face, and the need in this country for reform," said Marvink Correa, who is traveling to Washington for Rights for All People. "This is a situation that cannot continue."

Outspoken opponent of illegal immigration, U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said an economic boycott would make little difference.

"People who break the law forfeit a certain amount of comfort, by design," he said. "What this group is looking for is not `comprehensive immigration reform' but an amnesty and pathway to citizenship for people who have broken the law."

Boycott organizers, who held a news conference in downtown Denver, are printing 50,000 fliers and are urging immigrants and supporters to avoid spending money on anything except necessities such as food and medicine. They are also discouraging consular transactions and sending money abroad.

"The economic gears of this country are dependent on the 12 million undocumented workers here -- it cannot work by itself," said Ignacio Ramirez, of Immigrant Families in Southwest Denver. "We play an important role in the economy."

The groups said they hope not sending money abroad motivates Latin American governments, which rely on more than $30 billion in remittances annually, into supporting immigration reform in the U.S.

Those organizing the boycott include Padres and Jovenes Unidos, the American Friends Service Committee, Coloradans for Immigrant Rights and the Muslim American Society.