When Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed the nation's toughest immigration law, Arizona Senate Bill 1070, it instantly put the nation's oldest African-American college fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., in a tough spot. With their national convention scheduled to take place this July in Phoenix, Alpha Phi Alpha General President Herman "Skip" Mason and its board of directors had to make a decision: Should they join other groups who were protesting the law by boycotting the state of Arizona?

"We had a board conference call last Thursday and decided to boycott," Mason said. "We moved our convention to Las Vegas because we wanted to keep the convention in the West, and we needed a place that was competitive with room rates and offered entertainment and attractions." The conference dates will remain the same: July 21-25.

The new immigration law, which will take effect in late July, allows the police to ask the legal residency status of any person they suspect is illegally in the United States. Critics of the law say racial profiling of Latinos and other minorities is inevitable and protests have broken out around the country.

The city of San Francisco has prohibited its city workers from traveling to Arizona, while the American Immigration Lawyers Association moved its convention from the state. And when Major League Baseball's Arizona Diamondbacks travel around the country, protesters are greeting the team at many ballparks.

The decision to boycott Arizona is not without a cost for Alpha Phi Alpha. Breaking contracts with Phoenix area hotels, catering, and meeting rooms means the fraternity is now in litigation with contractors. And while Mason can't give an exact amount on how much the boycott will cost the fraternity, he estimates that Alpha is looking at over $300,000 in penalties. That doesn't include over 3,000 Alphas who will have to change their flight and hotel reservations as soon as possible.

"I'm ecstatic that our dear fraternity took a hard-line stance with a state known for attempting to block our Brother Martin Luther King Jr.'s national holiday," said Terry Calhoun, a financial planner and Alpha Phi Alpha member from Illinois. Calhoun purchased his discount airline tickets to Phoenix months ago, and will now be paying extra for the trip to Las Vegas. But he's fine with it.

"I would be willing to go to a campfire to hold the national convention as opposed to going to the oppressive state of Arizona," Calhoun said.