Travel news you can use from The Travel Detective®
Sign up for our FREE daily or weekly newsletter

Mexico Issues Travel Warning: Will Arizona Immigration Law Hurt Tourism?

Mexico & Central America, USA, West — on April 27, 2010 12:24 pm

Arizona’s Monument Valley- photo by Rick SammonA travel warning has been issued Tuesday to Mexican citizens planning on visiting the state of Arizona.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department is warning Mexican visitors that because of the “adverse political environment” in Arizona, Mexican visitors including migrant communities should be cautious when visiting the state.

The warning also urges Mexican travelers to carry proper documentation with them at all time and to “act with prudence and respect for the framework of local law.”

The travel warning is a reaction to new immigration legislation passed last week.  On April 23, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed the country’s toughest immigration bill into law.

The measure would make it a misdemeanor to be in Arizona without documentation that proves legal residence or visitor status. The controversial law would also require law enforcement to check the legal statues of anyone suspected of being in Arizona illegally.

Two Mittens, Arizona - Photo by Rick SammonThe Foreign Relations Department said that once the law was in effect, Mexican visitors could be detained if they failed to carry documentation.

And while the details of the law’s enforcement are not yet finalized, the travel alert warns visitors that “it should be assumed that any Mexican citizen could be bothered and questioned for no other reason at any moment.”

Of course, it’s not just Mexicans who could be potential victims of interrogation by law enforcement. Anyone generating “reasonable suspicion” of not being American could be required to show documentation. In 2008, almost 700,000 tourists visited Arizona from overseas–and they would all be required to produce their visa upon request.

Explore Arizona’s natural beauty with Landscape Photography of Arizona

Nearly 4 million legal Mexican visitors travel to Arizona annually and contribute to the state’s $18 billion tourist industry.

Arizona's Monument Valley - photo by Rick SammonIn a report commissioned by the Arizona Office of Tourism, it was estimated that tourism from Mexico accounts for almost $1 billion dollars annually.

Between 2007 and 2008, legal Mexican visitors spent $7.3 million a day in Arizona. Regular shopping trips by Mexican families in Tucson resulted in a 245 percent increase to the city’s economy since 2001.

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department is not the only government agency responding to  Arizona’s immigration legislation. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is voting today on a resolution to end contracts between the city and businesses in Arizona.

Arizona is no stranger to economic or travel boycotts. From 1990 to 1993, the state lost 170 conventions and $300 million because of its failure to approve a Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. Arthur Frommer, the founder of the Frommer’s Travel Guide empire, personally boycotted the state after seeing firearms being openly carried at an Obama speech last year.

By Adriana Padilla for PeterGreenberg.com.

Related links: Newser.com, Univ. of Arizona report, CBS-3, Christian Science Monitor

Related Links on PeterGreenberg.com:

  • Anonymous

    Mexico should anounce a warning regarding Americans going to Mexico not the other way around.These people should stand up against there own government and demand a better way of life.Our forefathers did not accomplish this overnite but it is systematicaly being dismantled by the large influx of illegal immigrants flooding our country and causing us billions of dollars to care for there needs.The president of Mexico should be thanking us for taking on his problems rather than condeming us.What an idiot! WHAT is it about the word illegal that no one seems to understand.Obama is going to fix it alright just by changing the word illegal to legal, what a novel idea-NOT.We need to get rid of these weak suck politicians once and for all this november and take back our country so that we still can have some sort of civil immigration plan going without jeopardizing our saftey and our economy.Political statement to be aware of are: (what about the children),(they pay there taxes),(the border is safe especially with a decline in agents right),(racist -this ones getting old) oh here is the big one (profiling) it works to save your asses on planes doesn’t it.

  • Cowboyed

    it will HELP arizona
    tons of people who adore sb1070 will now COME to AZ for tourism or business
    I don’t even know if AZ is ready to handle this

  • John Dolan

    Thanks a lot Arizona!!

    Now all the illegals will be coming over to the welfare state I live in….New Mexico …….Time to move to the center of Kansas where I’ve only got to worry about is the local people driving home on a Saturday night….

  • JD

    Arizona’s law is definitively racist, reminds me of Nazis. I wouldn´t travel to Arizona.

  • Patsy

    You did not read the bill. It says you can be asked for documentation IF you are caught in the commission of a crime or are stopped for a traffic violation. If anyone is caught in either of these situations, regardless of race, the first thing you are asked is to provide identification. To boycott Arizona is a petty thing because Arizona’s law is a watered down version of the federal immigration law. Everyone should be for inforcing the law of the land. People that break the law should be punished no matter what the crime is. In regards to Frommer’s boycotting Arizona, I guess I will not be buying any of their travel guides in the future.

  • http://www.bahamas4u.com/ bahamas travel

    I am socked to see that news.I think mexico government will try to avoid there problem……..

  • http://twitter.com/zeragon7 Zach Metzler

    what you idiots who claim that you’d have to be doing something illegal already don’t think about is the fact that it is based on suspicion. people are already racially profiled every day all over the country based on “suspicions”. these suspicions can be masked to be anything, but the truth is that a lot of the time its based on the poor assumption that for ex: a black man driving an expensive car must have stolen it. or……long haired people with piercings probably are carrying a big ol bag of mary jane in their car. this new law just encourages them to pull over anyone who even remotely looks latino. i guarantee with how blatantly culturally ignorant some cops are that someone is going to get pulled over at least once because of this whos not even mexican….they’ll probably pull over some asian guy…hell i dunno. there’s a lot of dumb fucks in america who ought to be deported just for being FUCKING STUPID

  • http://twitter.com/zeragon7 Zach Metzler

    oh did i mention that booting every mexican who’s here illegally will absolutely destroy arizonas economy and fuck them over because of how much they contribute? o yea and the fact that its the most hippocritical and morally wrong thing you could possibly do considering we aren’t here legally either! remember when we sailed over to a “new land” and killed a bunch of locals, forcing them to move far away while we take over? yea…..wohooo go america…….