Boycotts threatened or carried out over Arizona’s new immigration enforcement law could cost the Phoenix metropolitan area $90 million in hotel and convention business over five years, Mayor Phil Gordon said Tuesday. The figure, which does not include incidental spending in restaurants and shops, was calculated after four organizations canceled conventions or conferences and a dozen others said they would abandon visits if the law was not repealed, he said.
The fallout comes as the state, heavily dependent on tourism, struggles to right its economy. “I don’t think there ever would be a good time not to have $90 million,” said Mr. Gordon, a Democrat who opposes both the law and the boycotts.
The law, scheduled to take effect in July, greatly expands the power of the local police to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally and makes it a state crime, paralleling federal law, to not carry immigration papers.
Several major civil rights groups have urged people to avoid the state in protest.
Paul Senseman, a spokesman for Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, who signed the law on April 23, called boycotting the state “thoughtless and harmful” and said it was a distraction from the underlying issue of the federal government’s failure to control immigration and the border.
“An economic boycott of Arizona just adds to the massive economic burden Arizonans have sustained for years due to the federal government’s failure to secure our borders,” Mr. Senseman said.
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