Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Anti-immigrant movement
Center for Immigration Studies vs. The Truth
01 year ago
On a recent public radio program in Wisconsin, Steven Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies was confronted about his controversial organization by a local organizer.
Rather than address the concerns being raised, Camarota instead implied that the organizer had a “deep hatred of American workers.”
For more information on CIS go here, here, here or here.
Center for Immigration Studies Manipulates Poll Results from African Americans
01 year ago
It’s hard to swallow when others are putting words in your mouth. But that is exactly what the Tanton Network has been doing with African American communities. In its latest attempt to twist the views of African Americans, the Tanton Network through The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has released a poll titled ‘An Examination of Minority Voters’ Views on Immigration’.
It is not unusual for CIS to twist and skew facts to fit its extreme agenda. Anti-immigrant leaders are using this poll to convince the public that their view is race neutral and that ‘Minority Voters’ agree with their fringe views.
The press statement released with the poll downplayed the fact that a plurality of the ‘minority voters’ they had polled favored allowing immigrants staying in the country if they met certain conditions including: pay a fine, study English and undergo a background check.
Twisting the results was not good enough for CIS; its press release was titled ‘Minority Advocate, Constituents Differ on Immigration’. This is its attempt to drive a wedge between leaders and their communities. It also attempts to say that minority leaders, politicians, civil rights and faith leaders are irrelevant because they are “merely offering their own personal opinions”.
A careful reading of the poll results show that African American leaders are in step with their constituents on the issue of humane and just immigration reform. African Americans view our current immigration system as broken and in need of fixing. They are also agreeable to immigration reform which will allow immigrants to become a part of the rich diverse fabric of America after meeting certain requirements.
This is not the first attempt by the Tanton Network to put ‘blackface’ on its extreme views. In 2006, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) set-up the front group Choose Black America (now defunct), that purported to be the voice of African Americans on immigration. It was lead by Ted Hayes, who Minuteman Project co-founder Jim Gilchrist called the “icon for the African-American segment” of the border vigilante movement.
The Tanton Network knows the African American community has long been considered the conscience of the nation and they are trying to shove words in our mouths. The Tanton Network cannot be allowed to twist our voices or our views.
Tanton Memo of the Month – U.S., Inc.
01 year ago
by Sarah Viets
in American Immigration Reform, Anti-immigrant movement, Civil Rights, Demographic Composition, Demographic Issue, East Africa, Face Of The Nation, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Financial Umbrella, Immigrant Organizations, Immigration, Immigration Issues, Immigration Studies, John Tanton, Mak, National Organization, Native Animals, Parochial Schools, Preserving The Environment, Racial Makeup, Scenic America, Social Contract, Support Projects, Umbrella Organization
Tanton at a Social Contract event
This February’s Tanton Memo of the Month* details a list of nearly 30 organizations founded by U.S., Inc., John Tanton’s financial “umbrella” organization. The other day I found this document in our archives. As I plied through a variety of anti-immigrant documents, I stumbled across John Tanton’s description of his “umbrella”, U.S., Inc. For those unfamiliar with John Tanton, he’s the founder of a variety of anti-immigrant organizations, including Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, Pro-English, U.S. English, the white nationalist publication The Social Contract, and a variety of environmental and anti-immigrant projects.
Tanton has also financially supported over 50 organizations and individuals who, essentially, campaign on his behalf. Not all of his projects directly relate to immigration issues. Some support projects preserving wildlife, like ProWild, “a project that promoted the ranching of native animals in East Africa, or “Bringing Out the Best in Ourselves”, which “is a series of small grants to local public and parochial schools,” and Scenic Michigan, “an affiliate of the national organization Scenic America.”
Some are familiar with John Tanton from our work on immigration issues. John Tanton orchestrated today’s anti-immigrant movement. Tanton also cares deeply about preserving the environment, but only for a certain sector of the population. As Tanton openly admits in an interview, “Immigration is a demographic issue.” The entry point for Tanton, whether its immigration, the environment, or English-only issues, is the demographic composition of the nation. He may filter his language for a post-civil rights audience, but the message is the same. As white nationalist circles have no problem claiming that a community’s racial makeup is to blame for high rates of poverty in communities of color, Tanton will simply say that immigrants south of the border are a “brain drain” and negatively affect the successes of western civilization. Even though Tanton may not state the cause of this “brain drain,” the fact that he defines immigrants as a “drain” matches perfectly with white nationalists’ perception of people of color.
As you scroll the list of organizations, you will notice that some of these organizations no longer operate directly under U.S., Inc., for example the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA. This does not mean that NumbersUSA no longer works with John Tanton. In fact, NumbersUSA received financial support from Tanton in 2007. NumbersUSA also signed onto a joint project with U.S., Inc. and the population control organization, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS), an organization that has also received financial support from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation that financially supports scientific racism.
As immigrant rights supporters push for immigration reform, the John Tanton Network’s participation in our national debate on the issue is not benign. To John Tanton, immigration is a “demographic issue.”
*The John Tanton letters and memos are a public collection at the Bentley Historical Library.
Anti-immigration is White Nationalism
02 years ago
After reading about the John Tanton Network’s relationship to eugenics and possibly sterilization, I finally broke down in tears. As a researcher who studies white nationalism and anti-immigration for a civil rights organization, the majority of what I read is deeply offensive. It usually doesn’t bother me; I see my work as a necessary tool to educate people about white nationalism in a post-civil rights era. But as I re-read how eugenics scholars may have advocated for the forced sterilization of non-Christian people who weren’t white, I turned off my desk lamp and went home for the night.
As Barry Mehler points out in the video, Immigration and the White Nationalist Movement, modern day anti-immigration is rooted in the eugenics movement of the 1920s, similar to anti-immigration in the 20th century. Both fought, and are fighting, to preserve the idea of a white nation. However, unlike today, anti-immigration of the 1920’s openly fought to preserve white supremacy. Since it’s no longer socially acceptable to openly promote eugenics, modern anti-immigration hides its white nationalist roots.“The movement to restrict immigration, legal immigration and illegal immigration is a white nationalist movement. The concern is for white control of the United States”, says Mehler when addressing the links between the two movements.
Intellectual thinkers behind modern anti-immigration are some of the exact same leaders behind the current white nationalist movement. The creation of over two dozen anti-immigrant organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), was driven by white nationalism. Both concur their believe that multi-racial societies are inherently unstable, and…that a preference for one’s own group is natural, normal, and healthy and that “the genetic make-up of “non-white” people is biologically and culturally inferior to white people.” In fact, anti-immigration is white nationalism.
For example, John Tanton, the founder of FAIR, the Center for Immigration Studies, and NumbersUSA, received over 1.2 million from a pro-eugenics foundation. The editor of Tanton’s quarterly journal, The Social Contract, is also a board member of the well-known anti-Semitic organization, The Charles Martel Society. The summer 2009 issue of The Social Contract asserts that “new research shows that evolutionarily driven genetic factors provide a powerful explanation of differences in both achievement and temperament.” According to the author, “Not only are we supposedly biologically different, immigration will threaten the intellectual development of our nation. “
As Rep. Luis Gutierrez lays the ground work for immigration reform, Americans must remember that the issue isn’t necessarily immigration.
It’s a debate about what America should look like.