Arizonans highlight economic cost of tough immigration law

[Quixote1818]

Snip> Arizona is set to lose $490 million in tourism revenue this year, including $141 million in lost spending due to conferences canceled in protest of the measures, Todd Landfried said at a Hinckley Institute of Politics forum discussion at the University of Utah.

Landfried, a consultant and spokesman for Arizona Employers for Immigration Reform, said the state would lose almost 3,000 tourism jobs, while a major Chinese manufacturing company has moved its operations to Texas.

"That's a lot of jobs," he said. "The impact to all this stuff really is devastating."

Boycotts and dropped contracts have damaged Arizona's economy since the passage of SB1070 last year, Landfried said. Since farmers in the Yuma area have lost up to 60 percent of this winter's lettuce crop without enough workers in the fields, he added, the price of a carton of lettuce has almost doubled to more than $21.



http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705366423/Arizonans-highlight-economic-cost-of-tough-immigration-law.html

[tblue37]

1. Tough--serves 'em right. nt

[Desertrose]

6. Easy to say if you don't live here and it doesn't affect you.

No it doesn't serve some of us right...no tat all.

[tblue37]

7. No, it doesn't serve you or people like you right, of course, any more than

we deserve the damage CheneyBush did to our country during their reign. But those who do back such BS do deserve to suffer for it. I am just sorry that good people also must suffer. I do hope that experiencing such damage might wake some of them up.

[blondeatlast]

8. I live here--and I'm happy to see the boycotts are working.

I remember when we didn't have an MLK day, either.

Thanks, boycott participants--in this state, money talks, especially tourism money!

[Desertrose]

9. Tough when you count on the tourism money and you are just hanging on.

I really hope the boycott works...but that it works fast enough so those who are most vulnerable don't hurt too bad before the big boys hurt. Know what I mean?

[unhappycamper]

2. Later this year I'm driving from Boston to Portland for the VFP convention.

The Grand Canyon is was on my bucket list but I really don't want anything to do with AZ.

[SoCalDem]

11. You can always detour to Bryce Canyon or maybe this fantastic place

Fern Canyon

[pampango]

3. Just talking with a Canadian couple last night who had recently moved from Phoenix.

The husband (who's white French Canadian) said they left Phoenix because his wife (whose parents immigrated to Canada from the Philippines) was being mistaken for Hispanic and didn't want to live there any more. Nothing dramatically bad had happened to her, but she didn't feel welcome. They've lived here (Dayton, Ohio) for four month now and she doesn't feel the same subtle (in her case) hostility. While she had never lived in Quebec, the husband believed that Arizona was turning inward in a manner comparable to the way that the Quebecois had wanted to do in the past and had become unwelcoming to "outsiders".

Arizona lost a really nice hard-working couple because of repubs' fear (or partisan motivated expressions of fear) of Hispanics. Of course, some Arizona baggers may celebrate the departure of a Filipino-Canadian university professor since it may have opened up a job for one of "their own" - another small step towards "getting their country back". :)

[blondeatlast]

10. They aren't unique; I know 3-4th generation Hispanics who feel

the hate from others--these are good, hardworking people, most of whom have been in public service. One of them is my best friend, a recent retiree who is very conflicted; she's uncomfortably in her lifelong home an doesn't want to leave.

The atmosphere here is truly uncomfortable--it's "safe" to be openly racist now. :sob:

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Aw, gee. This is a surprise.

[ladjf]

5. Karma. nt