Higher-Ed Research Assn. Moves 2013 Meeting From Atlanta Over Immigration Legislation

The American Educational Research Association has announced that its 2013 annual meeting would be held in San Francisco instead of Atlanta because of an Arizona-style immigration enforcement law that Georgia adopted last year. The law adopts new rules for many Georgia businesses to make sure new hires are eligible to work in the country and gives the police new powers to investigate the immigration status of certain suspects. Opponents of the law raised concerns that it would lead to racial profiling of Georgia’s Hispanic population, which nearly doubled, to 9 percent, from 2000 to 2010, according to U.S. Census data. Some members feared that, under the law, participants from Mexico, Haiti, and other countries could be racially profiled and harassed.

KJ