Former Padres executive involved in Arizona All Star protests-Zirin

8/24/10, "Enrique Morones has been at the heart of the movement to move the 2011 Major League Baseball All-Star Game from the state of Arizona. As much as anyone in the United States, he is uniquely positioned to provide leadership on the connection between baseball and the rights of immigrants.

• For six years, Morones worked for the San Diego Padres as a Vice President in charge of connecting the franchise to the Latino community (1995-2001), Major League Baseball’s first Department of Hispanic Marketing. In addition, Morones is the founder of Border Angels, an organization that leaves blankets, food and water on the rough desert terrain to provide tools of survival for people crossing the border....

Now Morones has turned his energy against his former employer Major League Baseball. Morones has joined the cause of movethegame.org to move the 2011 All-Star Game."...

• From Mr. Zirin's conversation with Mr. Morales:

"DZ: Are you part of any organization that’s pushing to move the game?

• EM: My organization Border Angels is a human rights organization and human rights has no borders. Border Angels is very involved with this issue. We’re working in conjunction with a lot of national and local organizations.
• We rallied in front of the All Star game in Anaheim with many other organizations. This is now what it has always been: a collective movement. "...

from EdgeofSports.com, "Enrique Morones, the man who would move the game," by Dave Zirin

• Mr. Zirin is also appalled that Arizona Diamondbacks owners are said to be supporters of the Republican Party. Which, it's true has been pretty bad for many years, but then so have the Democrats. ed,

• via ThreeFingersofPolitics.com

From reading Mr. Zirin's and Mr. Morales' words, I'm not sure they understand what the Arizona law said or that compassion is also owed to Arizona's terrorized residents and neighborhoods. As I noted from an MLB.com article on 7/13 by A. McCalvy, MLB.com,

• From MLB.com article: "the law, which goes into effect July 29 and
• requires police to demand proof of a person's immigration status if there is reason to suspect he is in the U.S. illegally."...

This is not correct. Is MLB.com telling players that this is what the law is? It is bad enough they put this in an article. Are they giving this inflammatory interpretation to Latin players? This interpretation doesn't mention that existing federal law is no different from the Arizona law. If players don't like existing federal law, they have the freedom to leave anytime they want, or not to have come here in the first place.

• Following is relevant wording showing that MLB's interpretation is incorrect. The request for ID can only be made if the person has been stopped for another reason:

"B. For any lawful contact stop, detention or arrest made by a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of this state or a law enforcement official or a law enforcement agency of a county, city, town or other political subdivision of this state

• in the enforcement of any other law or ordinance of a county, city or town or this state

where reasonable suspicion exists that the person is an alien who and is unlawfully present in the United States, a reasonable attempt shall be made, when practicable, to determine the immigration status of the person, except if the determination may hinder or obstruct an investigation."...Reference, KETLaw.com

• From the article, it's not clear Gallardo understands what the law is, and that it's already a federal law. It sounds like he thinks he can be randomly stopped and asked for ID (as suggested in MLB.com's interpretation in this article).

• Rhode Island already has a stricter law in place than Arizona. MLB doesn't mention that or ask any players whether they'd boycott Rhode Island as well. Or if players understand existing federal law.

MLB.com has an ominous statement from Joakim Soria (end of article) which as it stands shows he doesn't understand the law. The reader is left to believe that interpretation.

• "They could stop me and ask to see my papers," Soria said. "I have to

stand with my Latin community on this."

• This is absolutely false. They could not stop Soria or anyone else and ask to see their papers. They could only ask after and in conjunction with questioning about an illegal act or potentially illegal act (such as highway speeding).

(The 'new' Arizona law, as existing federallaw, merely reminds people to carry ID as most do anyway. The Milwaukee Brewers don't consider it anything "new" for their players who've had ID cards for 3 years).

• From this article it seems either that MLB.com is uninformed or simply wants to operate as a political organization and make things much worse in this country. The article ignores the main point that federal laws have not been enforced,

that Arizona residents are in a constant state of terror and already have lost land permanently due to

• violence US officials refuse to control.

• Trash on Arizona border, Rape Tree in background,
• photo 3/16/09, Now Public

5/6/10,"The professional sports world, academia, and the entertainment industry, not wanting to be left out of the

• mindless allegiance to political correctness as determined by the Left,

have jumped on the bandwagon, calling for boycotts of Arizona. Have all these groups lost their ability to reason or ask questions?

• Has emotion become a substitute for facts?

Do they understand what useful idiots they have become?"...American Thinker, "Confessions of an Undocumented Alien who loves America," Steve McCann

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