Los Angeles agrees to extend contract with company having offices in Arizona

The Los Angeles City Council has voted unanimously on Tuesday to extend a contract with a company that has offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, after being told that the company's headquaters is based in Illinois instead of Arizona, a state that the city is boycotting since a draconian anti-illegal immigration law was signed by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23.

The Council agreed to renew a one-year contract with Blue Van Joint Venture, which operates Super Shuttle vans at the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) after the general manager of Los Angeles WorldAirports, which owns LAX, said the company's U.S. headquarters is not in Scottsdale, Arizonia, but in Lombard, Illinois. The company has corporate offices in the small city near the state capital of Phoenix, so many in the council believed it was an Arizonan company. The company pays Los Angeles 1.3 million dollars annually to operate in LAX. The current contract expires on July 31.

Councilman Ed Reyes maintained that the city is still upholding it economic boycott against Arizona. "This is not a symbolic gesture," he said. "We did not do this resolution (economic boycott) just to sound good. We did it because we truly believe we need to influence the environment so that not one American can be deported for the way they look."

This is the second time that the council makes an exemption to its economic boycott of Arizona.

A month ago, the council, citing public safety reasons, extended a contract with another Scottsdale-based company, American Traffic Solutions, to operate red light cameras for the Los Angeles Police Department.

On May 12, the Council voted to boycott Arizona businesses, making Los Angeles the largest city to take such action to protest the state's tough new law targeting illegal immigration.

The resolution bars the nation's second-largest city from conducting business or reaching new contracts with Arizona businesses unless the immigration law is repealed, and also prohibits most city business trips to the state. It was largely symbolic as only a small fraction of the city's business dealings are affected.

The anti-illegal immigration law, SB 1070, goes into effect on Thursday. Suspected aliens would be subject to police interrogation regarding their immigration status when they are involved in traffic stop and other enforcement operations. Illegal immigrants are required by the law to be sent to prison or are handed over to federal immigration officers.

Billed as one of the most draconian immigration laws in the United States, SB 1070 has been bombarded with numerous protests and public decries in many parts of the country. President Barak Obama called the law "misguiding."

In the meantime, many residents in the state, and especially those of Caucasian descent, support the measure.

For fear that they might be targeted by the draconian law, many immigrants have fled Phoenix and other major cities in Arizona recently.

Source:Xinhua