Arizona-based CEOs and Leadership Now Arizona co-founders John Fees and Adam Goodman, alongside social change expert Catherine Alonzo, wrote in the Phoenix Business Journal about why Arizona business leaders can no longer afford to stay on the sidelines when workforce stability and community trust are at stake.
The op-ed draws on a recent Leadership Now Arizona survey finding that 81% of Arizona business leaders believe expanded federal immigration enforcement would harm the state's economy — a concern that spans political affiliations.
The authors argue that collective action through coalitions reduces risk and increases credibility, pointing to examples like the coordinated business response to SB 1062 in 2014 and recent coalition efforts in Minnesota following economic disruption from immigration enforcement.
"Leaders can certainly be selective, but must remember that silence is in itself a form of action…..Should we say something? Increasingly, the better question is: Who will we say it with?"