Tomorrow, immigrants’ rights and civil liberties advocates will rally in front of Major League Baseball’s headquarters in Manhattan to call on MLB Commissioner Bud Selig to move next year’s All-Star Game out of Arizona in protest of SB1070, the state’s unconstitutional anti-immigrant law.
In April, Arizona lawmakers shocked the nation by passing SB1070, among the most discriminatory, anti-immigrant state laws in recent American history.
The 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game is scheduled to be played in Phoenix next July. Pressure is building on Commissioner Selig to relocate the game to send a clear message to the state’s lawmakers: Baseball is all-American but discrimination is not.
In May, the American Civil Liberties Union, with other leading rights groups, filed a legal challenge to the law. On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a federal lawsuit against Arizona, charging that SB1070 is unconstitutional and seeking to block its enforcement.
What:
Rally at MLB Headquarters to pressure Major League Baseball to move the 2011 All-Star Game out of Arizona
When:
Thursday, July 8 at noon
Where:
MLB Headquarters, 245 Park Ave. (46th Street and Park Avenue)
Who:
The rally is cosponsored by: New York Civil Liberties Union, The New York Immigration Coalition, American Immigration Lawyers Association New York Chapter, African Services Committee, Bill of Rights Defense Committee, Boycott Arizona NYC, Cabrini Immigrant Services, CARECEN, Council on American-Islamic Relations-NY, Democracy for New York City, Greater New York City for Change, Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition, La Union de La Comunidad Latina, Left Labor Project, Long Island Immigrant Alliance, Minkwon Center for Community Action, NAACP New York State Conference, New Immigrant Community Empowerment, New York Civic Participation Project, Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrants Rights, Queens Community House, Sikh Coalition.
Filed under: News
This article contains false information. Arizona is NOT a racist state. It is a state that welcomes all people of all creeds, colors, nationalities and religions. However, it believes that these people should come into the country LEGALLY. Since the federal government will not uphold its responsibility in this, the State must take matters into its own hands. Bravo to them for doing it. That being said, as a baseball agent, I know first hand that every major league baseball player that hails from another country is in the US LEGALLY. As such, they will have no problem visiting the great state of Arizona. The new law is NOT discriminatory. It applies to all individuals regardless of race, creed, color or nationality. Just because Arizona has an unusually high number of Mexican citizens in its state, adversaries of the law want to characterize it as discriminatory. There is no discrimination, just statistics. Factual numbers. Read the bill yourself to see. http://www.azleg.gov/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1070s.pdf. Furthermore, many states, including California (the most recent host state of the All-Star game) have laws on their books that are the same or similar to Arizona’s newly enacted law. Arizona has been negatively affected by drug trafficking, human smuggling and violent crimes caused by illegal aliens for way to long. This law is about the preservation of a quality and LEGAL existence in the state of Arizona. It has NOTHING to do with racism and the author of this article should do his or her homework before writing such a blatantly false piece of information.
Editor’s note from KW: I disagree with most of what you have said. (Of course Arizona is not a racist state. A few politicians were racist and made a racist law.) Just to clarify, the moderators cannot confirm or deny a person’s identity or employment.