FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Julian Teixeira
(202) 776-1812
jteixeira@nclr.org
Statement by Janet Murguía, President and CEO of NCLR (National Council of La Raza)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—We applaud the bipartisan rejection of five anti-immigrant bills that came before the Arizona State Senate yesterday. Hopefully this signals a new day in Arizona where reasonable voices come together to solve problems rather than scapegoat the most vulnerable segment of their population. We want to thank the community and faith leaders who have been working tirelessly on these issues and who have been joined by law enforcement and government leaders to map out a new approach. We especially welcome the direct engagement of the 60 CEOs, business leaders, and 20 chambers of commerce that petitioned the State Senate to oppose the bills. We urge the state senators who helped to defeat these bills to stand firm and reject any attempts to bring such measures back.
These thoughtless and unnecessary proposals take our country in the wrong direction. The citizenship clause is a bedrock principle of civil rights and part of what makes us all Americans. With one infamous exception, never in our nation’s history have we amended the Constitution to take away someone’s rights, and we should not do so now.
We gratefully thank those Arizona senators who voted no. Arizonans are growing weary of legislation that does nothing to boost their economy and further tarnishes their state’s name on a national scale. Today, Arizona’s legislators can look forward to a new era of cooperation in solving the state’s problems, and we would be happy to join them in this effort.