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New York, NY— As the Mets get ready to play the Arizona Diamondbacks at Citi Field today, New York Civic Participation Project (NYCPP) will rally with community leaders and unions against Arizona’s harsh anti-immigration law. Immigrant rights advocates across the country have been protesting the law and urging the MLB to move the 2011 All-Stars game out of Arizona unless the controversial law is revoked.
“The MLB should honor its civil rights tradition and stand with the millions of baseball fans who will face the wrongful harassment and discrimination under Arizona’s disrespectful, mean-spirited and unconstitutional law,” said Hector Figueroa, Chair of NYCPP Board of Directors.
Today’s protest at Citi Field is one of a number of nation-wide rallies. Earlier this month, protestors rallied at the Major League Baseball (MLB) Headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, and in May, hundreds of people demonstrated outside of the Dodger Stadium as the Arizona Diamondbacks played the LA Dodgers. SEIU has also launched a series of “Want Ads” for a new state to hold the game.
“As a nation of immigrants, the majority of Americans want to move forward with a way for 11 million undocumented immigrants to earn citizenship,” said Figueroa. “We must reject enforcement-only tactics that break up families, disrupt businesses, divide communities, drain state and local budgets, and hamper our economic recovery.”
From the international boycott of South Africa during Apartheid to the NFL’s refusal to hold a Superbowl in Arizona after the state did not acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day, there is a long history of sports leagues and organizations standing up for civil rights. Major league baseball has long been linked to the struggle for civil rights in America, beginning with Jackie Robinson’s debut in 1947 as the first major league African-American player in the modern era.
According to a study by UCLA, mass deportation would cost over $240 billion taxpayer dollars, take decades to achieve, and tear apart millions of American families. Although a judge’s order has blocked parts of SB 1070, NYCPP, 32BJ and immigration rights’ groups and allies will continue to boycott Arizona until the law is revoked in its entirety.
updated 7/30/2010
