"For Sports Wager, Mayors Have Fun With Immigration Law"

[Clio the Leo]

For Sports Wager, Mayors Have Fun With Immigration Law
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
Published: May 17, 2010

LOS ANGELES — It is not uncommon for mayors of cities represented in major sporting events to make friendly wagers that might cost the loser some pride.

With the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns beginning the Western Conference finals Monday night in the National Basketball Association playoffs, the mayors of Los Angeles and Phoenix turned the tradition into a political statement over Arizona’s controversial new immigration enforcement law.

The law, which makes it a state crime not to carry immigration papers and gives police broad authority to check the papers of people they stop, already had moved from the political arena to the sports arena. The Suns wore “Los Suns” jerseys in a conference semifinal game to protest the law, and Lakers Coach Phil Jackson angered some Latino groups, who believe the law will lead to racial profiling, by making approving comments about it to ESPN.com this month.

Now, Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa of Los Angeles has sent a letter to Mayor Phil Gordon of Phoenix, cracking wise over the law with a suggestion that Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash, originally from Canada, may end up in Los Angeles if “he forgets to carry his passport.”

He then proposed that if the Lakers lose, Los Angeles will accept Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, who has faced litigation over allegations of racial profiling in a series of crime sweeps in metropolitan Phoenix.

“Perhaps a stint in Los Angeles would teach him that you cannot deduce immigration status simply by looking at a person,” Mr. Villaraigosa said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/us/18bet.html?ref=politics

[blondeatlast]

1. Like I needed another reason to hope Phoenix prevails. If ever I wished a friendly in-joke would

come true, it's now.

!Viva los Suns!