Immigration Law Condemned by MLB Players' Union

Given a chance to take part in the 2011 All-Star game at Arizona, Ozzie Guillen insists he won't go.

"I wouldn't do it," the Chicago White Sox manager said Friday. "As a Latin American, it's natural that I have to support our own."

Guillen joined a growing chorus of opposition to Arizona's new law that empowers police to determine a person's immigration status. The state is home to all four major team sports, hosts half the clubs in spring training and holds top events in NASCAR, golf and tennis.

The Major League Baseball players' union issued a statement condemning the law. A congressman whose district includes Yankee Stadium wrote a letter to baseball commissioner Bud Selig urging him to pull the All-Star game from Phoenix. The World Boxing Council took a step to limit fights in Arizona.

"It's a bad thing," said Baltimore shortstop Cesar Izturis, born in Venezuela. "Now they're going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they're going to come out on the street. What if you're walking on the street with your family and kids? They're going to go after you."

More than one-quarter of big leaguers on opening-day rosters were born outside the 50 states, most of them from Hispanic descent.

"These international players are very much a part of our national pastime," MLB union head Michael Weiner said. "Each of them must be ready to prove, at any time, his identity and the legality of his being in Arizona to any state or local official with suspicion of his immigration status."

Weiner said that if the law is not repealed or modified, the union would consider "additional steps."

A day earlier, WBC president Jose Sulaiman said its sanctioning body unanimously agreed it will not authorize Mexican boxers to fight in Arizona.

"Great figures of boxing have fought in Arizona, boxers such as Julio Cesar Chavez, Salvador Sanchez, Konstantin Tszyu, 'Coloradito' Lopez and many, many others," said Sulaiman, who is based in Mexico City. "The WBC will not allow that in boxing, athletes are exposed to suffer that degrading act, humiliating and inhumane, as racial discrimination is."

MLB, the NFL and the NBA declined comment on the law.

The BCS national championship game will be played next January in Glendale, Ariz., shortly after the city hosts the Fiesta Bowl.

"The recent Arizona immigration legislation is obviously a matter of great public concern," the Fiesta Bowl said in a statement Friday. "While this matter may ultimately be resolved in a court of law or in the court of public opinion, we are certain that it will not be resolved on the fields of college football."

Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., sent a letter Thursday night to Selig, asking him to take next year's All-Star game out of Arizona.

Calling the law "extremist" and "discriminatory," the congressman wrote: The All-Star game is now not just a display of baseball's best talent, but is also a display of the global reach of the game. It is at odds with the reality of the modern game to hold such a prestigious event in a state that would not welcome those same players if they did not play our national pastime."

St. Louis pitcher Kyle McClellan, the Cardinals' player representative, said he didn't know whether the summer showcase would get moved.

"The All-Star game, it's going to generate a lot of revenue. Look at what it did here for St. Louis," he said. "It was a huge promotion for this city and this club and it's one of those things where it's something that would definitely leave a mark on them if we were to pull out of there. It would get a point across."

"Now whether it would actually come down to that, I don't know." he said.

Arizona Diamondbacks managing general partner Ken Kendrick said "this whole situation is sad and disappointing."

"We believe the federal government should act swiftly to address the immigration issue once and for all," he said in a statement.

Said Cleveland Indians coach Sandy Alomar Jr., whose team trains in Goodyear, Ariz.: "Certainly I am against profiling any race and having sterotypes, but at the same time my feeling is what does baseball have to do with politics? Let the politicians stay in politics and the baseball players play baseball."

Guillen, from Venezuela, became an American citizen in 2006. He said players should consider boycotting baseball in Arizona, adding, "I plead sportsmen to join on this."

The White Sox hold spring training in suburban Phoenix. Guillen said he hoped MLB would take a strong stance on the immigration law.

"They have to. They have a team in Arizona," he said. "There is a concern for baseball players to go out there, of course, and we've got to support those people."

Coverage of Arizona's New Immigration Law

Arizonans Say Immigration Law Will Reduce Crime
Rick Perry Has Concerns over Arizona Immigration Bill
Can Dems Do Immigration Reform this Year?
Arizona Immigration Law Backlash Intensifies
Ariz. Immigration Debate Zeros in on Baseball
2 Lawsuits Challenge Immigration Ariz. Law
Web Turns into Weapon in Immigration Fight
City Councils Mull Ariz. Boycotts Over Immigration Law

[ronmoreland]

Your going to boycott a common seance issue that at least 78% of people are in favor of. And your ranting that better days are ahead? Not the brightest bulb in the pack. Are we? I don't see to many Canadian flags waving at the rallies either. How arrogant.

[Eddiespaghetti007]

Lets pretend that for many decades workers were aloud to come into 'your' country on work visas and return after the season was over to their motherland with a substantial amount of money that they wouldn't have been able to make in their own country. (1940-1975)

But over the decades, your government starts ignoring the laws on the book concerning who gets to be inside their borders legally and instead panders to the corporate contributions being deposited into their bank accounts. And what if eventually the immigrant workers decide not to abide to the law of the land and not leave after their visa has expired once they realize no one is pursuing their infractions of the law in this foreign country they work in.

So your government, run by two influential parties that constantly fight each others agenda just to further their own perceptions of what a future America is going to be like that hopefully will benefit their party the most, does nothing to enforce its own laws on the federal books despite the constant clamor over the decades from the citizens of the country that elected them into office in the first place.

Lets pretend that on TWO previous occasions a President of this country (one from each party) gave amnesty to over ten million people each time with the promise to it's citizens that "IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN!" (1976-Carter..1986-Reagan)

But over the years the enforcement of these laws erode away despite your constant screaming voice to your elected representative in a futile attempt since 'THEY' have no need to patronize you anymore now that they are now in office. They are instead influenced by the mega billion dollar corporate empires that are throwing millions of dollars at EACH party to make sure their agenda is priority over the voters. No matter WHO gets elected into office, their corporate agenda will be perpetrated.

Now picture this, the only time your elected official wants to hear from you is when they are up for reelection the upcoming year, and suddenly this person has changed for the better and is now your best friend and "Understands Your Concerns" ...promising to vote the way you want them to once in office. After a few years of disappointment and no change from who you elected, a representative from the other party is elected into the office of your district and nothing changes once again! The people of this country start to realize over time that there's still a robber at their door! Even though they may have a different mask on, the results are the same!

Picture once again that this whole country is represented by every nationality and race of the world we live in. A country in which for hundreds of years there was a line of smiling faces waiting to become a member of this society willing to put in whatever it may take to become a viable asset and give a contribution to this growing country all in the legal way!

But when the situation arises of an illegal alien invasion on this sovereign nations border that is perpetrated by many different countries all using the same easy unsecured entrance into said country, the opposition singles out the fact that it's a racial issue. Even though this country is more diverse than any country in the world with all colors and races represented, a certain race is singled out as racist when they ask the elected officials to enforce the previous amnesty laws that were pushed onto the voting citizens of this country on many occasions before. The fact is ignored that every race in this country is represented in the outcry of opposition to this new amnesty, but in fact they single out the majority race as the obstacle to their infiltrating agenda!

WE NEED TO VOTE OUT EVERY CAREER POLITICIAN FROM OFFICE NOW!
It's not 1840 anymore and Washington isn't a three week ride away! We can speak for ourselves and accomplish more if we get fresh people in congress that want to make real change to this country! Vote in someone completely new that listens to what we want and bring down the political parties!

Copy/Paste everywhere if you agree-Eddiespaghetti007

[huffie04]

MLB is against the immigration law because if we deport the illegals then there wouldn't be enough players for the game.

[pragmatist1]

So why haven't/aren't all of these sanctimonious hypocrites condemning the continued actions of illegal aliens invading our nation or do they think it's perfectly acceptable for these criminals to continue their crime spree? AZ would not have had to do what it did were it not for the illegal alien forcing their hand, especially since the Federal government doesn't care about doing something demonstrative against this problem which is out of control. We also need to repeal or severely amend the Fourteenth Amendment of our Constitution to exclude kids being born here of illegal aliens being given automatic citizenship.

[ctbrakh1]

this is too funny. 70 percent agree with this law. what do ya think it will do to baseball if we decide to quit supporting baseball?

[stychokiller]

So, is MLB in favor of Sports players indulging in questionable Sex Practices? Stick to baseball, ya Id10ts!

[Ami0_Ami0_Ami0]

This is unfortunate, and it is the reality. This 'issue' has nothing to do with 'Race'. Except to the extent that the people that are abusing the border just happen to be primarily made up of people with a particular skin color. Nationality is the issue. Race is an unfortunately inseparable part of the make-up and appearance of the foreigners that are crossing that particular border.

It's inescapable, and for many Americans it is tolerable and reasonable that a persons appearance may come into play when identifying people of foreign nationalities; when there is no malice intended.

It is not Racist. It is not racist to use a persons appearance to identify whether that person might in fact be foreign. Which may be relevant depending on the context. It also may not be, depending on the context.

Race is completely coincidental to what many believe to be the fact; the issue, and the need in this situation, which is foreign individuals entering the country illegally.

It is unfortunate that race is such a handy mechanism to use to promote emotional responses rather than to promote well thought out responses. And that mechanism is used repeatedly to quash any effort to legislate and enforce a solution.

There are 40 Million first generation immigrants in America. 10+ million of them are here illegally. All within the past thirty years. Most within the past ten years.

Ten Million.

If you work in Hollywood you probably have never had to compete for a job with the ten million people mentioned here. So you have the luxury of dealing with this from a moral and philosophical standpoint. Which seems to state something to the effect that; 'if there exists even the chance that an individual might be inconvenienced', having been approached because of their appearance; then it is wrong, immoral, and even racist and it shouldn't happen.

Others see it as. We have no choice but to run the gauntlet between enforcing the law and being accused of being racial, one thing or another. The rate of the influx cannot be sustained. While the quality of life in America remains high. (incidentally, it's not all that terribly high anymore).

We cannot provide jobs and sustenance for the whole world. And we don't appreciate being called racist, having sacrificed so much for so long.

Jobs are not available. Jobs are continually leaving the country and Americans find it difficult to provide for themselves and their families with the scraps that have been left from bailing Companies and the flood of aliens.

This is how many of us see it.

Incidentally somebody should get a list of the companies that are trying to manipulate this situation in Arizona, post it on the internet and circulate it (an I know that someone will).

So we can boycott every single one of them... I'll bet it hurts them worse than it hurts us.

This is not about 'race'. This is about what is good for America.

[run2jazz2]

Baseball, NFL and NBA stick to what you do best which is playing your sport! Your player are making millions of dollars in salaries and probably don't know the last time any of them or their families went to bed hungry, lost their house or got laid off from a job! In other words shut the hell up!

[jackp32]

"Gov. Brewer for President in 2012." Take that MLB players union. We, the people, don't care what a bunch of 'roid lovers think.

[jackp32]

In case no one has said it yet to the MLB players union: kiss my grits you rich, spoiled bozos.