S2 EP04: That's their image of us

While national leaders weighed in on the passage of Senate Bill 1070, on the ground in Arizona, it was already emptying neighborhoods. The grim exodus played out quietly all over the state.  To the rest of the country, the law served as a laugh track and spectacle. The images of Arizona as a racist, backward-looking state didn’t help its economy. Within weeks of signing the law, the state’s tourism industry counted at least two dozen events that were cancelled. A Scottsdale consulting firm estimated that in the four months after the bill became law, Arizona missed out on $141 million from conferences that had been canceled. It also cost the state about 2,700 jobs in that time.   When SB 1070 faced legal challenges, Gov. Jan Brewer had no question of what she would do next. Her legal team appealed the matter to the U.S. Supreme Court.  But the immigrants rights community in Arizona wasn’t through fighting. They began organizing.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices