New Immigration Law May Be Good For Arizona Business

While some politicians are boycotting Arizona, many Americans are supporting Arizona businesses with their pocketbooks

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One Arizona jewelry company, Aerogem.com, has seen a rise in business since the new immigration law (Senate Bill 1070) was signed last month, in large part by out-of-state residents wanting to show their support for Arizona.

Amy Morgan, an executive for Aerogem located in Scottsdale, said they first thought their sales increase was a result of the rising cost of silver, but now realize other factors are involved. "Yesterday, a first-time customer from Los Angeles purchased almost $200 in sterling jewelry with a note: 'Doing a little early Christmas shopping to show support for Arizona,'" Morgan said.

Digging a little deeper, they realized that many recent referrals to their website have been coming from out-of-state residents searching for items specifically in Arizona. Before the law, most nationwide searches were not state specific.

Doing a little early Christmas shopping to show support for Arizona

- Aerogem Customer

Morgan said she would prefer the federal government take the lead on such contentious immigration issues, and feels Arizona businesses are unfairly targeted by some politicians. "No Arizona company wants to be the poster child for this new law, and it's unfortunate that Washington uses immigration reform for political grandstanding rather than working toward fixing the problem."

Arizona's new law, which proponents and critics alike said was the broadest and toughest immigration measure in generations, would make the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and give the police broad power to detain anyone suspected of being in the country illegally.

Despite its harshness, a Pew Research Center survey released Wednesday indicated that 63 percent of people nationally support allowing police to question anyone they think might be in the country illegally and that 59 percent of Americans approve of Arizona's new law.

While sanctuary cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco condemn Arizona's new law, lawmakers in at least nine other states - Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Maryland and Ohio - have said they planned to model legislation after SB 1070.