L.A. labor leaders plan to send activists to Arizona to protest new immigration law


May 24, 2010 | 4:25 pm
Los Angeles labor leaders plan to send five bus-loads of activists to Arizona on July 29, the day the state’s controversial new immigration law takes effect.
Participants plan to leave all their identifying paperwork behind in a challenge to the Arizona law, which, among other provisions, mandates that non-citizens carry immigration paperwork demonstrating their lawful presence in the United States. The statute also empowers local police to question people about their immigration status.
The law’s supporters say it is a legitimate response to widespread illegal immigration. Critics, including Maria Elena Durazo, who heads the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, says it amounts to racial profiling against Latinos.
“If this was Arizona and not Los Angeles, I would say standing before you today are a group of ‘suspicious’-looking people,â€