Publish Date: 3/24/2007

Economic boycott in works
Goal is to show the power of immigrants

By Ben Ready
The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — Immigration-reform advocates who support the humane treatment and legalization of undocumented immigrants are launching a statewide, weeklong economic boycott Sunday.


The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition — a group of 80 organizations, including El Comité of Longmont and Boulder’s El Centro Amistad — is asking Coloradans to do the following between Sunday and April 1:


Avoid spending money or going out.


Withdraw all but minimum balances from bank accounts.


Do not wire money to other countries or make consular transactions.


Turn off televisions and use minimal electric energy.


The goal is to demonstrate the economic power of the immigrant community and send a message to Congress that Colorado wants comprehensive immigration reform now, CIRC leaders said.


CIRC’s Denver office has made dozens of media presentations and circulated 50,000 boycott fliers. Centro Amistad has circulated another 2,000. El Comité director Marta Moreno declined to comment when asked if her organization will participate in the boycott, but El Comité’s office had the flier posted on its front door Friday.


The boycott is not to hurt the economy but to remind the state how much Latinos contribute, Centro Amistad community advocate Claudio Mallo said.


“We’re not against the economy. We live here,” said Mallo, a native of Argentina. “I am very grateful to this country. But we need just reforms because people can’t continue to live in the shadows.”


Boycott leaders say they won’t judge its success or failure on the number of people who participate or — if it’s even possible to calculate — how many dollars were pulled from the state’s economy.



Opponents think the economic boycott is a misguided effort that will only further distance CIRC supporters from mainstream Coloradans.


“It’s going to backfire, just like last Spring’s massive demonstrations,” said Yeh Ling-Ling, director of the California-based Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America.


Yeh, who spoke in Colorado last year and has travelled the country to promote the enforcement of immigration laws, said last year’s boycotts served only to remind Americans that the illegal immigrant population has ballooned out of control.




Juan Morales, the owner of the Variedades Morales store at 1630 Main St., has distributed about 70 boycott fliers to his customers. Morales said he supports legalizing the undocumented, but he won’t participate in the boycott and fears his store might suffer because of it.


“Last year’s boycotts and marches didn’t help people get documentation,” the Mexican-born Morales said in Spanish. “Look at all the raids they’ve had since then.”


Nino Gallo, chairman of the Latino Chamber of Commerce of Boulder County, said Friday he hadn’t heard of the boycott.


CIRC will launch the boycott during a Cesar Chavez march today at 12:30 p.m. in Denver.

http://www.longmontfyi.com/Local-Story.asp?id=15377