Apr 27, 2010

Mexico issues travel alert for Mexican citizens in Arizona

10:15 AM
By Ross D. Franklin, AP

The Mexican government issued a travel alert today cautioning its citizens about travel in Arizona because of a tough new immigration law and an "adverse political atmosphere" for all Mexican visitors.

The alert by Mexico's Foreign Relations Department to migrant communities and all Mexican visitors urges those in Arizona to "act with prudence and respect the framework of local laws," the Associated Press reports.

Click here to see the potential impact on Arizona of a tourism boycott.

The warning says that once the law takes effect, foreigners can be detained if they fail to carry immigration documents.

While enforcement details are not yet clear, the alert says ,"it should be assumed that any Mexican citizen could be bothered and questioned for no other reason at any moment."

Mexican foreign secretary Patricia Espinosa, speaking to the Institute for Mexicans Abroad on Monday, said Mexican citizens in the United States are experiencing particularly difficult times because of the economy and "a resurgence of hostile attitudes, the product of prejudice and intolerance," according to the Foreign Affairs Web site.

"The recent signing of Law SB 1070 in the state of Arizona is an example of this," she said.

Espinosa also said that Mexicans in the United States will have the federal government's full support, "especially those Mexican citizens whose rights are violated."

Update at 11:37 a.m. ET: Mexican President Felipe Calderon has warned that relations with the U.S. border state will suffer as a results of the law.

The measure, he said on Monday, "opens the door to intolerance, hate, discrimination and abuse in law enforcement," the Associated Press reports.

Calderon also said he had instructed the Foreign Relations Department to double its efforts to protect the rights of Mexicans living in the United States and seek help from lawyers and immigration experts.

"Nobody can sit around with their arms crossed in the face of decisions that so clearly affect our countrymen," Calderon said in a speech at the Institute for Mexicans Abroad.


Update at 12:33 p.m. ET: Calls for boycotting Arizona and its businesses over the new immigration bill are spreading virally and now the state's business community has begun fighting back on similar social networking sites, The Arizona Republic reports.

La Opinion, the nation's largest Spanish-language newspaper, has called for a boycott, and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is voting today on a resolution calling for an end to any business the city has with Arizona.

A fall convention for immigration attorneys has already been canceled, the newsaper reports.

Online, more than 10 Facebook pages are dedicated to boycotting Arizona, with two attracting thousands of supporters: Boycott Arizona and Boycott Arizona 2010.

A Facebook poster from Chicago urges fans to boycott games of major league team who do their spring training in Arizona.

To fight back, the Arizona Hotel and Lodging Association has its own Facebook page, "Don't Boycott AZ Tourism" with this tagline: "Don't punish 200,000 tourism employees for politics."

Kristen Jarnagin, spokeswoman for the association, says the page is not about the immigration law, rather an attempt "to let people know the difference in who you're really harming if you boycott Arizona."

Arizona's decision decades ago not to adopt a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday cost it a Super Bowl and the Diamondbacks worry that the immigration law could cost them next year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game, The Republic reports.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities ... -arizona/1