Comprehensive immigration reform would level the playing field for all workers by providing crackdowns on those who are manipulating our economy. For most, living here without documents places them in danger. Some of these immigrants work long hours in jobs that most of us could not stand to do day after one day – jobs that demand manual labor in harsh working conditions.

Providing 12 million undocumented immigrants a path to legalization would end unfair job competition, lift wages and increase tax revenue, whereas deporting 12 million undocumented immigrants would cost the United States dearly.

These costs are seen when some families of deported parents, who maybe previously never received public assistance from local agencies (that already face large cuts in funding); now have to request it because of the absence of a spouse. If the deported parent would have been allowed to stay in the United States to raise and support that family both financially and emotionally, the family would be liable to have more independent success. Nobody dreams of starting a family to later have that family taken from them.

It is a proven fact that children, our future, do better when they have a strong connection with both parents. A strong bond with one’s parents has long-term community benefits.

With few days left to shape the immigration dialogue across this great country, it is time for all of us to be involved in discussions with our communities and our leaders. Let’s make humane immigration reform possible in this country.

The National Policy Institute (NPI), a white nationalist organization, believes that in order for “The European identity of the United States and its people [to] be maintained, Federal decentralization and territorial separation should be recognized as legitimate and humane means of preventing and resolving divisive social, ethnic, and racial conflicts.”

Glenn Beck has yet to respond to NPI’s boycott; however, this is an ideal opportunity for mainstream media to finally speak out against Beck’s racially divisive brand of journalism.

The National Policy Institute’s “boycott” comes amid a rash of neo-Nazi activities targeting immigrant communities.

On February 20, forty-eight Ku Klux Klan members covered in white hoods protested against undocumented students marching to Washington D.C to raise awareness of immigrant’s civil rights. The KKK’s Imperial Wizard Jeff Jones stated that “We are here to tell you wake up Georgia and stop the Latino invasion now.” “I know plenty of people who are willing to work and would do anything right now,” according to the Jacksonville newspaper.

The Nationalist Socialist Movement (NSM), a neo-Nazi group, is currently mobilizing its membership to attend its national meeting, “Reclaim the Southwest,” on April 17. In the announcement, the NSM relies on immigration issues to rally its base. The flier for the event says, “Let your voice be heard as we speak out against illegal immigration, Sanctuary Cities”. According toNSM’s webpage, the “rally will be hosted in Southern California this year with the rally on the South Lawn of L.A. City Hall”.

On May 1, the American Nazi Party (ANP) is hosting its National Conference in Detroit, Michigan. Like the Nationalist Socialist Movement, ANP also uses immigration issues to rally its troops. On the front page of ANP’s webpage, the Nazi Party sends its visitors an alarming message by claiming that “America has an estimated 20 MILLION brown, mestizo ILLEGAL ALIENS who have INVADED OUR NATION – this evil”.

The biggest concern for the American Nazi Party (ANP) is the upcoming demographic changes, particularly for white Americans. On the top part of the page, the ANP warns that”only 23% of the American population under the age of 18 is WHITE. Already, four U.S. states are MAJORITY NON-WHITE, and 10% of all counties in America are MAJORITY NON-WHITE. World-wide, White women of child-bearing age comprise only 3% of the earth’s population. Do these FACTS disturb you? They should.”

When the anti-immigrant leader, Shawna Forde, murdered 9-year-old Brisenia Flores, the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA said nothing. When a gang of teenagers killed Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant in Suffolk County, Rhode Island, the Center for Immigration Studies said nothing. When congressional leaders support hate-crimes legislation, the Federation for American Immigration Reform supports elected officials who oppose hate-crime legislation.

While the Tanton Network portrays itself as credible single-issue anti-immigrant organizations the organization’s founder, John Tanton, sings a different tune. As neo-Nazi groups express concern of whites no longer being the majority, I’m reminded of John Tanton labeling immigration as a demographic issue.

As immigration legislation reform looms, reporters hold America’s moral compass in their pens. Mainstream media continues to say very little about Glenn Beck’s journalistic habits, it also says very little about the John Tanton Network’s ties to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups campaigning on behalf of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant agenda.

Nothing else can explain its recent response to a comprehensive report on the failure of E-verify. Rather than accept the program’s failures and promote more effective ways to fix the immigration system, the network of anti-immigrant groups led by John Tanton is attacking the report and trying to discredit hard facts. The anti-immigrant trifecta of the Tanton Network – FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA – came out swinging against the report which effectively debunks their data on E-verify.

Mark Krikorian of Center for Immigration Studies said, “Nevertheless, it’s certainly true that E-Verify isn’t tight enough yet, but in a glass-half-full sense, this isn’t really bad news,” and “…we know perfectly well what the problems are, and they don’t have much to with with the E-Verify system itself.”

We do indeed know perfectly well what the problems are. The problems are anti-immigrant groups with ties to racist organizations injecting themselves into a mainstream debate and distorting data.

Here is the truth: E-verify encourages discrimination in hiring. The harder it is for employers to properly utilize the system (and it sounds nearly impossible), the more potential employees they will pass over. Don’t be surprised to one day hear reports of employers who admit to resorting to racial profiling because it was easier than E-verify. Anti-immigrant leaders like Krikorian know this. They know that applying for a job while brown is hell and E-verify just makes it worse.

Putting aside undocumented immigrants for a moment, this has serious implications for all workers of color. Think unemployment among communities of color is bad now? Just wait.

Just as the anti-immigrant movement has tried to turn landlords, local law enforcement, and ordinary citizens into the federal immigration police, so too would it like to turn employers into immigration snitches.

We can’t afford it. America is in economic trouble, and lawmakers and employers can’t afford to spend their time tracking down and reporting every single potentially undocumented immigrant. It’s a waste of precious resources and will hurt American businesses.

When anti-immigrant groups make their motives clear, when they renounce all associations with white nationalist organizations, then we can talk about E-verify. Until then, their opinions on the matter simply aren’t valid.

Leading this effort is Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), the legal arm of the John Tanton Network. IRLI’s primary purpose is to push legal causes that unfairly target immigrant communities. IRLI works with extremist anti-immigrant groups and leaders to push anti-immigrant ordinances at the municipal level. In 1985, John Tanton launched IRLI, but made sure he kept it firmly under the control of Federation for American Immigration Reform, which has tried to portray itself as a mainstream organization despite its links to extremist groups, including white nationalists.

IRLI “was structured in such a way that it could operate under FAIR’S tax exemption but have its own board, appointed initially by FAIR’S board,” Tanton says in an oral history. “We tried to keep control of IRLI by making sure that the FAIR board was the ultimate authority in appointing the IRLI board.”

In New Jersey, IRLI brags about bringing a federal civil racketeering lawsuit against apartment owners for “illegal harboring” in 2008. In Pennsylvania, IRLI has persistently tried to pass anti-harboring ordinances and cost the city of Hazelton an untold amount of money in the process.

These are just a few examples of IRLI’s efforts to set a model for local legislation that will make it impossible to rent an apartment or give someone a ride in a car without first confirming their citizenship. This will make for some very serious divisions in our communities. Divisions that would make John Tanton’s white supremacist friends very happy.

Friends like VDARE, the white supremacist online publication founded by Peter Brimelow and supported by his foundation Center for American Unity. This 2006 brief illustrates Center for American Unity’s collaboration with John Tanton Network organizations. The Center for American Unity considers multiculturalism a threat to American heritage.

Then there is the question of who will be targeted next. Will taxi drivers be sued for picking up customers? Will school bus drivers have to defend themselves in court if they drive undocumented children to school? What about motel owners in these communities or ambulance drivers? I wouldn’t put it past The John Tanton Network to do whatever is necessary to divide communities along racial lines. One of FAIR’s state contacts, Minnesotans for Immigration Reform, has already taken these activities to the fringe. It recently promoted a very extreme website to supporters. The website asserts that “aiding and abetting” undocumented immigrants is a felony, and offers visitors the opportunity to “report” their landlord. Aside from all the blatantly inaccurate information contained on the site, it is clearly advocating for extreme vigilantism.

The anti-immigrant movement claims to be protecting regular, working Americans, but its actions say otherwise.

Americans value the freedom to prosper. And the freedom to do with their property as they see fit. Threatening property owners with lawsuits to further a political agenda is underhanded and hinders the economic prosperity of average Americans.

In a show of solidarity between the immigrant rights movement and the LGBT community, MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund) President Thomas Saenz, delivered a keynote speech advocating for comprehensive and inclusive immigration reform at the largest conference for LGBT equality, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change conference in Dallas, Texas.

Saenz, who was tapped to head the DOJ Civil Rights Division under the Obama Administration, assumed a leadership role at the Mexican-American Legal and Defense Education Fund last year. He took the platform at Creating Change to express his interest in deepening collaboration and partnership between LGBT and immigrant communities.

The MALDEF President dismissed “pundits who opine freely that the LGBT and Latino communities cannot work together because of the philosophy and beliefs of the Latino community,” stating that this perspective was deeply flawed since the communities are integral parts of each other and overlap consistently.

Read the entire article here.