Capitol Alert: Forty-four California lawmakers back Arizona boycott resolution

The head of the California Senate and minority lawmakers unveiled a proposal today to urge a boycott of Arizona to protest its new police immigration law.

Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, said 44 legislators have already agreed to co-sponsor Senate Concurrent Resolution 113, which Cedillo introduced today. The bill urges, but does not mandate, an end to California public entities investing or doing business in Arizona.

It also recommends not traveling to Arizona -- suggesting that ethnic minorities' rights could be violated -- and calls on private businesses to consider severing business ties with Arizona.

Arizona's new law requires police officers to ask to see proof of legal status if they have "reasonable suspicion" that someone they stop could be an illegal immigrant. Officers can detain that person if they are not convinced of the proof that is supplied.

The law, which hasn't gone yet into effect, faces legal challenges by critics that believe it is unconstitutional and will lead to officers racially profiling Latinos and certain other people.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, joined Latino, Asian, black and gay lawmakers at a press conference outside the Capitol to support Cedillo's resolution.

"The proponents of the Arizona law don't tell you the whole story," Steinberg said. "They tell you well this is only directed at those who are no in this country illegally. Not true."

"There is one defining characteristic that allows law enforcement official to stop someone and ask them for their papers," Steinberg said. "It's whether or not their skin is browner than my skin. That is not what this country is about."

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said officers are being instructed not to use ethnicity as a reason to ask to inquire about legal status.

But a number of Arizona police chiefs have expressed concern that officers will be forced to engage in racial profiling. The law also allows people to sue police if they don't think officers are doing enough to quiz people about their status.

At the news conference, Cedillo was asked why he doesn't stay out of the Arizona debate and focus on California's problems exclusively. "Because as an American I must speak out on issues that affect our nation," Cedillo, a longtime proponent of immigration reform, said.

He said California is a leader among states with strong ties to Arizona, and that it should send a message to Arizona "that division is not the way to go, that we must be united as a nation."

"We can't have 50 states try to have 50 different immigration policies" he said. "We must have one policy. It's too important and affects our international relations, our national security and our economic security."

Cedillo said the purpose of his resolution is also to put pressure on Congress and President Barack Obama to address immigration reform.

"Congress, you must act, and Mr. President you must lead," Cedillo said. "Because we cannot have more Arizonas."

Assemblymember Warren T. Furutani, D-Gardena, chairman of the California Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, said Arizona's law was "predicated on all those things we know are contrary to being an American."

"We're well beyond the time," Furutani said, "when because of the color of your skin, the texture of your hair, the slant of your eye, that you have to be suspect relative to being legal, relative to being an American citizen."

Alameda Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, a Democrat and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, said: "We have to ask ourselves, 'What next? In what direction does this law go?' "

Cedillo's resolution urges the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System to stop making any new investment in Arizona until the police law is repealed. It also urges Major League Baseball officials to remove Arizona from consideration as host for the 2011 All-Star Game.

Another black caucus member, Sen. Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, called a boycott a "painful thing," but added, "We must fight strong to make sure there is equal justice and equal protection."

The chair of the Legislature's gay caucus, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, suggested ethnic minorities' rights were under attack while others employ them to do jobs.

"We don't want people to go back to plantation politics," he said. "If you're good enough to clean my toilet in my house but you can't live in my house, then that's criminal. That's hypocritical."

Ammiano said boycotts are a tradition used to exert pressure. People won't be hurt, he said, "because they are already hurt. They are being dehumanized."

Assemblyman Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, addressed the crowd in Spanish. De León's mother was an immigrant who cleaned houses in the wealthy city of La Jolla, and he was inspired to became an instructor helping immigrants become U.S. citizens.

"The United States, although it seems that some in Arizona have forgotten, was built with the sweat of the brow of millions and millions of immigrants," De León said. "With that sweat we've earned much political space and our place in this great country."

Absent from the gathering was Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, another Los Angeles Democrat, who has not signed on as a co-sponsor of Cedillo's resolution.

Pérez has said he is strongly opposed to Arizona's law and believes it will be struck down as unconstitutional. He has also said a boycott is not the answer.