Columbus bans city-funded travel to Arizona

BY ROBERT VITALE
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman has banned city-worker travel to Arizona because of that state’s new law allowing police to demand documentation from people they suspect are in the country illegally.

“The mayor will not be approving any travel to Arizona,” spokesman Dan Williamson said this morning.

“He agrees with those who want to send a message to the state of Arizona that this is not the American way.”

Already, he has rejected a request from the city’s technology director to attend a seminar in Phoenix, Williamson said.

The order was issued in a recent meeting with city department heads.

The Arizona law says local officers should, when practical after a stop, detention or arrest related to other laws, seek proof of a person’s immigration status if they suspect that the “person is an alien and unlawfully present in the United States.”

Some of that wording was added to “make it crystal clear and undeniable that racial profiling is illegal and will not be tolerated in Arizona,” according to a statement that Gov. Jan Brewer released when she signed the revision.

As Columbus joins a growing number of U.S. cities protesting the Arizona law, Williamson said the mayor has no plans to propose that the city stop doing business entirely with companies based there.

Seattle took that step on Monday.

In Columbus, contracts will be decided on a case-by-case basis, Williamson said.

Columbus recently extended its agreement with Phoenix-based Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., which owns and operates the city’s 20 red-light cameras. The new contract will double the number of cameras posted at Columbus intersections to issue tickets to red-light-runners.

Rescinding that program “wouldn’t make sense to the taxpayers,” Williamson said.