Los Angeles Tells Arizona Where To Stick It

Councilman Ed Reyes meets with supporters after the council voted to ban most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with companies in that state in response to Arizona's crackdown on illegal immigration. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Out in California, the Los Angeles City Council, denouncing Arizona's tough new racist, fascist illegal immigration laws, has voted to ban most city travel to Arizona and future contracts with companies in that state.

Way to go, LA.

The city council members understand that this new law in Arizona, which makes it a state crime to lack immigration papers and requires police to determine whether people they stop are in the country illegally, could lead to racial profiling and discrimination.

And they don't like it.

Council members compared Arizona's action to those of Nazi Germany and the beginning of the Holocaust, as well as the internment and deportation of Japanese Americans during World War II in this country.

Councilman Ed Reyes: "Los Angeles is the second-largest city in this country, an immigrant city, an international city. It needs to have its voice heard....As an American, I cannot go to Arizona today without a passport. If I come across an officer who's having a bad day and feels that the picture on my ID is not me, I can be … deported, no questions asked. That is not American."

And it needs to end.