The fight over Arizona’s contentious immigration law has landed at the doorstep of Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig.
Immigrant-rights activists rallied Thursday afternoon in front of MLB’s New York headquarters, urging Selig
to yank the 2011 All-Star Game from Arizona.
The law, known as SB 1070, is already being challenged by six lawsuits, including one filed this week by the U.S. Justice Department. And it’s sparked an economic backlash in the Grand Canyon State: cancellations of business conventions and concerts, and boycotts from cities across the country, from Los Angeles and Seattle to St. Paul, Minn.
But some members of Congress and immigrant rights activists believe the most effective way to overturn the law is to target a single, high-profile sporting event: the All-Star Game.
Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), who joined Thursday’s protests, introduced a resolution earlier this year calling on MLB to move the game to a venue outside of Arizona. And Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) has called on players to boycott the baseball showcase, set for Phoenix’s Chase Field on July 12, 2011.
“Selig can make a major statement. I believe if he came forward on behalf of Major League Baseball and said, ‘We are going to take the game out,’ I think Arizona would react to it by reconsidering the law,” Serrano, whose district includes Yankee Stadium, told POLITICO. “It wouldn’t be the first time that that has happened.”
Opponents are turning to a playbook from 1990, when the NFL pulled the Super Bowl from Arizona after voters shot down a ballot initiative to create a paid state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Only after Arizona voters overwhelmingly approved the King holiday in 1992 did the NFL award the 1996 Super Bowl to the state.
An MLB spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. But Selig has previously said he has no plans to relocate the game and that America’s favorite pastime shouldn’t become “a pawn in a political debate.”
The Arizona law, set to take effect on July 29, makes it a state crime to be in the U.S. illegally, and requires local law enforcement officers to check the immigration status of individuals they stop if there is “reasonable suspicion” they are in the country illegally. Polls show that a majority of Americans support the law.
Opponents of the Arizona game have mobilized since SB 1070 was signed into law in April. They’ve launched a website, movethegame.org, protested the Arizona Diamondbacks at ballparks across the country and organized Thursday’s midtown Manhattan rally to exert pressure on Selig just days before the 2010 All-Star Game weekend.
Serrano’s office estimated that there were 150 to 200 protestors present at Thursday’s rally.
“He can’t continue to not take a position,” said Heather Holdridge, a spokeswoman for movethegame.org. “By not taking a position, he is effectively taking a position.”
The law hasn’t only divided political leaders — President Barack Obama called it “misguided” and “ill-conceived” — it’s also split Major League Baseball players and coaches. Latinos make up more than a quarter of MLB rosters.
Chicago White Sox Manager Ozzie Guillen said he won’t participate in an Arizona All-Star Game unless the law is overturned; neither will three-time All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez of the San Diego Padres.
MLB’s players union also opposes the law. But St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said he personally backs SB 1070.
“It has nothing to do with Arizona. What it has something to do with is states should take care of what the federal government’s not taking care of. That’s their responsibility,” La Russa told reporters. “The principle is you’ve got a state that has problems and the federal government isn’t fixing them.”
Selig’s assertion that baseball should have no place in politics is disingenuous, said Serrano, who added that politics permeated the $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium project.
“There is always an involvement by government,” the congressman said. “Baseball enjoys an antitrust exemption, so if tomorrow Congress decides to get rid of it, you’re telling me you wouldn’t see Major League Baseball politicking in Congress?”
In recent months, Serrano penned two letters to the commissioner urging him to strip the game from Arizona. So far, Selig has dodged the issue.
“He wrote back, and basically he gave the history of baseball in the Latino community and how well they treat Latinos,” Serrano said. “He totally ignored my point in the letter. He never spoke to the issue of whether he would consider taking the game out of Arizona.”
