Calls for boycott of Arizona follow harsh immigration law

The call to boycott Arizona is growing after the governor signed into law a controversial immigration bill. In Los Angeles, seven city council members signed a proposal calling for the city to stop doing business in the state. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom prohibited city employees from most official travel to Arizona and city Supervisor David Campos introduced a non-binding resolution that calls on residents to avoid the state. At the state level, California Senate leader Darrell Steinberg called on Governor Schwarzenegger to tear up the state's contracts with Arizona's public and private entities.

"One of the great lessons from the civil rights struggle is that economic might matters.  Desegregation ended when the business owners in Montgomery, Alabama and other cities of the south recognized that they were going to lose patronage if the laws of segregation did not change."

Across the coast in Washington, DC, the city council also plans to take up a boycott proposal. Meanwhile, dozens of truck drivers pledged to stop driving to Arizona. And boycott proponents are calling on sports fans and tourists to stay out of the state, where many visitors flock each summer to see the Grand Canyon.

The anti-immigrant bill requires police to question and check the paperwork of anyone they think might be undocumented, including possibly victims and witnesses to a crime. Opponents say this is racial profiling and discrimination, and question the constitutionality of the law. The Obama administration is also speaking out about the new law. Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is exploring legal challenges. President Obama, spoke about it Tuesday night at a town hall meeting in Iowa.

"This law that just passed in Arizona, which I think is a poorly conceived law, [applause] you can try to make it really tough on people who look like they, quote on quote, 'might' might be illegal immigrants.  One of the things that the law says is local officials are allowed to ask somebody who they have a suspicion might be an illegal immigrant but you can imagine that if you are a Hispanic in Arizona your great grandparents might have been there before Arizona was even a state, but now suddenly if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream you're gonna be harassed, that's something that could potentially happen, I - that's not the right way to go."

The new law also makes it a state crime to be undocumented and it prohibits people from hiring day laborers off the street. Supporters, including Republican Governor Jan Brewer, say it's necessary to fight crime from drug cartels. Despite the controversy, other states could follow. A state representative in Texas, Debbie Riddle, said she'll introduce similar legislation.