UPDATE:
The bad news: BuyCostumes continues to sell these extremely offensive “illegal alien” costume that perpetuates the idea some people have about undocumented immigrants as alien foreigners, strangers, scary. (you can see it here: http://www.buycostumes.com/Illegal-Alien-Adult-Costume/60504/ProductDetail.aspx). In news reports, Jalem Getz, CEO of BuySeasons, which owns buycostumes.com, claims “It’s not a caricature of an illegal immigrant; it’s a play on words.”
Tell BuyCostumes that this very offensive “illegal alien” Halloween costume they are selling—is more than a play on words. It is offensive and dehumanizing. The costume perpetuates racism and discrimination in an already hostile environment and during a period of time when the debate on immigration reform is increasingly hateful and divisive.
The UFW has put up a new twitter petition @ http://act.ly/pm. To sign, just click here or go to http://act.ly/pm, and then click the "Sign and Tweet" button. If you’ve never used Twitter, you can set up a new account and sign the petition at the same time! (NOTE: You may have to try a few times to get through if Twitter’s web servers are busy.)
Tell BuyCostumes they should follow the example of these other outlets and respect their consumers. IE: the Spokesperson of Meijer.com said, “We did it after seeing that some people were bothered by it. So we decided to take the high road and pull them.”
Jocelyn
PS: If you’ve never signed a Twitter petition before, just click here and click the "Sign and Tweet" button.
Signing our Twitter petition will make a huge impact because the signatures are public. If enough of us sign, Amazon will be forced to respond! (NOTE: You may have to try a few times to get through if Twitter’s web servers are busy.)
P.P.S If you’re already on Twitter, once you’ve signed the petition you can also help us spread the word about Amazon by "tweeting" about these costumes. Make sure to use the hashtag: #ufw #immigration