CEO DATELINE - Hispanic bar association cancels Texas conference in protest
CEO DATELINE - Hispanic bar association cancels Texas conference in protest
- August 10, 2017 |
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Walt Williams
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The Hispanic National Bar Association is pulling its 2020 Corporate Counsel Conference from El Paso, Texas, in protest of state lawmakers' recent passage of a law banning "sanctuary cities."
The new state law, approved in May, threatens jail time for law enforcement officers who do not cooperate with U.S. immigration officials in detaining illegal immigrants. San Antonio and Austin are two targets of the law, as both have said police officers should not be in the business of asking people about citizenship. However, both reject the label "sanctuary city."
HNBA believes the law could lead to racial profiling of any Latino person in Texas, regardless of his or her citizenship status. As a result, the group has canceled its 2020 conference, which it said would have brought in an estimate 1,000 attendees and at least $1 million into local economies.
"We certainly will not invest our dollars into a state that has demonstrated an unwillingness to provide all people with equal protection and due process under its laws, nor would we subject our members, all of whom could face detention and questioning under (the law), to such discriminatory and degrading treatment by hosting a conference in a state with such openly hostile policies," HNBA National President Pedro Torres-Díaz said.
Torres-Díaz added HNBA would not hold any conferences in Texas as long as the law remained in effect.
HBNA is not the first association to yank a conference from a state in protest. Several groups pulled events from North Carolina after state lawmakers there passed a law in 2016 preventing transgender people from using public restrooms not corresponding to their sex at the time of birth. Texas lawmakers are currently considering a similar "bathroom bill" that has drawn criticism from ASAE and other associations.
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