Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Austin Mayor Pro Tem Mike Martinez and City Council Member Bill Spelman plan to introduce a resolution to limit employee travel to Arizona and terminate business and investment relationships with the state.

The resolution comes in response to controversial immigration legislation passed in Arizona last Friday. The law, which goes into effect later this summer, would require local and state law enforcement to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect is undocumented, and make it a crime for immigrants to lack registration documents.

The three Austin council members plan to present the resolution at the May 13 city council meeting.

"The reasons for introducing this measure are two-fold," Martinez said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon. "First and foremost, we want to ensure that we are not exposing city employees to risk by sending them into an uncertain and potentially hostile environment in Arizona. Second, we want to send a loud and clear message to the State of Arizona that our community stands in vehement opposition to racial discrimination in any form."

Supporters of the bill claim it does not aim to promote racial profiling, but comes in response to drug-trafficking problems along the Mexican-American border.

Opponents argue, however, that it will inevitably lead to racial profiling, and as such, violates civil rights.

"Arizona’s new immigration law puts anyone traveling to the state in jeopardy of being detained, based on a law enforcement officer’s 'reasonable suspicion' that that person might be an undocumented immigrant," Spelman said in the Thursday statement. "That’s wrong, and I can’t responsibly allow our city employees to be placed at such a risk."