Arizona ADL convenes meeting with Governor and groups representing opposing points of view on SB 1070

Date: June 8, 2010

On May 17th, a meeting was convened by the Arizona Regional ADL to bring Governor Jan Brewer together with a group of local business and civil rights leaders to discuss where we go as a community in the wake of SB 1070. This meeting was proposed to Gov. Brewer as possibly opening up a dialogue among folks who do not agree on the new law. Even though Gov. Brewer knows full well that ADL opposes the law, she had enough faith in ADL’s fairness that she agreed to the meeting and even let ADL help determine who would be attending. In addition to the Governor, ADL Regional Board Chair Miriam Weisman, former Board Chair Marty Shultz and Regional Director Bill Straus, the attendees included the CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa, the President of Los Abogados (the Hispanic Bar Association), the publisher of The Arizona Republic, the CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the CEO’s of the states two major utilities, Arizona Public Service and Salt River Project, the Chairman and the Director of the Arizona/Mexico Commission, the CEO of the Cattlemen’s Association, the retired Special Agent In Charge of the Immigration Naturalization Service, the President/CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the CEO/President of the Fiesta Bowl and the former State Attorney General.

The objective of the meeting was simply to establish a dialogue between opposing points of view and discuss possible steps forward. Initially scheduled to be a one hour meeting, it went almost two hours, with Gov. Brewer staying throughout; she was initially going to leave after 45 minutes. Among those steps was a suggested meeting between Gov. Brewer and President Obama. They met just over two weeks later in Washington, D.C.

The group will reconvene sometime within the next month.

For more information call (602)274-0991.