“Urging Major League Baseball to take away next year’s All Star Game from Phoenix is the wrong play. In Arizona, both proponents and opponents of Senate Bill 1070 have stated that economic boycotts are an inappropriate and misguided response to an issue that is clearly worthy of proper public debate and discourse. Put simply, history shows that boycotts backfire and harm innocent people. Boycotts are just more politics and manipulation by out-of-state interests. As a border state, Arizona has already paid a heavy price for the federal government’s failure — hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars in unreimbursed costs, and its citizens should not be punished further…

“Essentially, our border leaks like a team with a last-place defense. The very same week that I signed the new law, a major drug ring was broken up and Mexican cartel operatives suspected of running 40,000 pounds of marijuana through southern Arizona were indicted…

“There have been countless distortions, honest omissions, myths, and bad information about Arizona’s new law — many, undoubtedly, spread to create fear or mistrust.

“So, here are the facts…”

***
“The owner, Francisco Meza, 41, a legal immigrant living in Mesa, said he has a good idea why: that more people are afraid to leave their homes, fearing that they will be swept up by police, and that others have already left the state.

“‘My fear is that all my money is invested in this restaurant,’ he said in Spanish.

“Meza said he may have to leave Arizona, send his family back to Mexico and go to Colorado to find work.

“And then he pulled out his cell phone, to show a reporter a video that he says was circulating in the Hispanic community.

“A still photograph of Arpaio was accompanied by Latin music, and a Spanish speaking voice, jokingly saying the sheriff was going to raid Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Meza laughed, but behind the joke, there was fear.”