There haven’t been giant street protests. But Latino activists are looking at ways to strike back if voters approve a tough immigration law
By Phil Boas | Arizona Central | June 3, 2024 | Photo Courtesy of Republic File Photos
I’ve been asking the question in Arizona Republic editorial board meetings all year.
Where is the Latino community? Where is the Senate Bill 1070-level blowback for all the hardnosed immigration laws now being proposed?
There have been some protests and even commotions during legislative debate. But nothing like what we witnessed 14 years ago during the SB 1070 upheaval that turned into boycotts and massive protests and marches.
Where is everyone?
There will be backlash if HCR 2060 passes
Then I got a tip that Alfredo Gutierrez, the biggest name in Arizona Latino activism, is planning boycotts.
So, I called him.
Turns out my tip wasn’t exactly on the mark. He’s not planning boycotts. Not yet. He’s keeping his powder dry.
But he is serving notice that if what Republicans today call the “Secure the Border Act” or House Concurrent Resolution 2060 passes in November, there will be hell to pay.
In truth, he said it more politely.
Nonetheless, he was naming names about who might soon find themselves facing a harsh spotlight, including Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego, APS, Intel, the Taiwanese microchip producer TSMC, the banks, Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma.
What Gutierrez, a former lawmaker, former Senate majority leader and powerful activist, had to say last week will likely draw the attention of Arizona business and political leaders.
On the boycotts he said, “There is a lot of discussion at this point. And the example is often made of the boycott that happened on 1070, which was, from our point of view, … immensely successful.”
Gutierrez considers the bill a ‘terrorist plot’
But 2024 is different from 2010.
In that year, then-Gov. Jan Brewer signed into law SB 1070, which would make it a state crime to be in the country illegally and to fail to carry immigration papers.
This year’s measure — HCR 2060, modeled after Texas law — would make it illegal to cross Arizona’s southern border anywhere other than a port of entry.
Now referred to the ballot, the measure would cut off public welfare programs to the undocumented and would require prisons to take in those who violate immigration law.
Gutierrez is frank about the ballot initiative, which Republicans gave final legislative approval this week. He calls it a “terrorist plot” that would unnerve the much of the Latino population and cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars to enforce.
“This bill really doesn’t do anything new except terrorize the community. And they claim it’s focused on the undocumented. It’s focused on Mexicans. It’s focused on people who look like me. That’s who the police are going to be after.”
Given the anger it is provoking in the larger Latino community, the next step is to rally voters, he said.
“I think most people are concluding that the first thing we have to do is focus on the election and win this if we possibly can,” Gutierrez said. “And if we win, we will celebrate, and if we lose we will have to recalculate what we do next, and certainly a boycott is one of those things that is going to be on the agenda.”
Latinos are more powerful than in 2010
The biggest difference between 2010 and 2024 is that the Arizona Latino community is more powerful and better informed and organized than it was back then, he said.
“One of the things we learned is how to conduct a boycott. The first time around we were sending out press releases and sending people to L.A. to talk to the (Los Angeles) Board of Supervisors. … We were jumping at every opportunity that was out there.
“How this is going to be different is an overall strategy. Focus. Focus very clearly on (strategies that are) going to have a major economic impact on Intel, on the Taiwanese major development going on on the northwest side. On downtown. On specific individuals who have sat quiet while this goes on — for example, the mayor of Phoenix, who depends on us.
“Yes, it’s going to be very different. We learned a lot. And we are going to focus on every convention that is scheduled for Phoenix and Tucson and Scottsdale over the next five or six years. And we won’t get all of them to say no. But some of them will.”
Another change from SB 1070 years is the way middle- and upper-middle class Latino citizens now see themselves, he said.
“(They once) perceived the immigration issue as about the undocumented. It didn’t impact them. They were successful. They went to college. They had major success. They didn’t see themselves in jeopardy until 1070.”
If HCR 2060 wins in November, the Latino community will work to recall Senate President Warren Petersen and turn him into the next Russell Pearce, the then-Senate president who authored SB 1070 and was ousted in 2011, he said.
They learned a lot from SB 1070 boycotts
Another lesson learned from last time is that big business and towns and cities are reluctant to get involved, he said.
“It was virtually impossible to get the business community to speak out. Banks just felt that banks don’t do this. Utility companies don’t get involved in these questions. They get involved in their rate increases. They just wouldn’t take a step forward. Cities and towns said, ‘This isn’t our fight.’ ”
“When the boycott began to take effect. When this became a national discussion, when the question was, ‘Is Arizona the most racist state in the union?’ ’Is Arizona the state that most hates Latinos — more than Texas?’ When people were discussing that on national TV shows, that’s when they panicked. That’s when they got together. That’s when 27 major corporations, CEOs, signed a letter saying, ‘Stop this.’ No more of this anti-immigration legislation.”
You don’t persuade the CEOs. They are, in fact, savvy to the real-world consequences of laws that make virtually all Latinos, including lawful citizens, feel as if they’re under perpetual suspicion, Gutierrez said.
And when he said it, he said it with a thinly veiled threat.
“These are very smart people they have. They know what’s at stake. They know their investors. They know their boards. They know how far they can go and how far they want to go. They know their own sort of moral fire, their own ethical core. So, you really don’t. You can tell them the facts and that’s it. “
“These are not ‘persuadables.’ These are folks who understand the business that they’re leading, the customers that they’re serving.
“They know the consequences, and they know the consequences if the House becomes Democratic, the Senate becomes Democratic, they didn’t speak up and they’re going to show up on January 14th with their hat in hand and ask for something. They know the consequences of that.”
You don’t persuade CEOs. You prompt them
Maybe you can’t persuade the CEOs, but you can give them a nudge, he said.
“The Taiwanese should not be asked to talk about this; on the other hand, they got billions of dollars of our money to build out there.
“Intel shouldn’t be asked to do this, they’re hoping to make chips or something. On the other hand, they’ve got billions of dollars of our money, and they have to speak up.“
“And the banks and the utilities. The utilities, you know APS … (are) not hesitant to invest heavily in legislation they care about. They’re going to be asked to invest in this.”
And, finally, there’s all the young Latinos who came of age during SB 1070 who are ready to wage war against any similar bills, Gutierrez explained.
“I sit in on these meetings with these 25 year olds — I’m 78 — and they’re ready to go. I mean energy. They’re really, really spry. I walk out of there so impressed and sometimes in tears, because they move me so much.”
Immigration could be the wild card in this
But not all changes since 2010 favor Latino activists.
Today, there’s a more urgent sense that illegal immigration has become one of the most serious problems in the country. The issue has moved to the forefront of the presidential election as record numbers of undocumented migrants have flowed across the U.S.-Mexico border.
On Tuesday, Joe Biden signed an executive order to temporarily seal the border and suspend protections for asylum seekers.
Gutierrez insists, however, that Arizona Republicans are going too far by courting the demons and chaos of SB 1070.
“What Peterson and Toma are doing is such a selfish act of self-preservation and for their own political ambition to put the state at risk this way.
“Let me just stress this, if this passes, that chaos will occur the next day.
“If this passes. There will be nobody to stop it.”
