Arizona does not need your tourist dollars
Not that anyone has any money to travel anywhere these days, but now that Jan Brewer, governor of Arizona, has signed into law a provision saying that police have the duty to ask anyone they think might be an illegal immigrant for documentation, I won’t feel safe being in the state. I’m the one who gets “randomly searched” at least once when I’m flying. Apparently, I have the face of a terrorist. I don’t want to go to a state, give than my hard earned dollars, and then have to prove I’m a US citizen. And I have been to Arizona before, so it’s not unheard of for me to go again.
Immigrants with family in Arizona might think twice about going, since who knows if the documentation we give in New York is what they require in Arizona? I certainly would rather pay for my family to come here than try to go there.
So if you know someone with the wrong last name (anyone who’s Latino) or you have the wrong last name or look like you might not belong (and a bunch of us know what that’s like,) don’t travel to Arizona. Ms. Brewer doesn’t deserve your money.
UPDATE: Thanks to The Daily Show (where would I be without it?) I found out that Arizona also wants any presidential candidate to show his birth certificate, a blatant “nod” to the Birthers movement. And it’s the 3rd state to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit. So forget dreading being harassed by police, I might get shot!
Tom Tancredo, known for his strict stance on immigration, thinks the Arizona immigration bill goes too far. If he thinks it’s bad, I’m never stepping foot in that state again.