Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Immigrant Rights
Lou Dobbs Stumbles to a Defense
01 year ago
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Lou Dobbs is on the defensive after a scathing report accused the anti-immigrant zealot of knowingly hiring undocumented workers. After a year-long investigation, Isabel Macdonald reported Thursday for The Nation that before being booted off of CNN by a coalition of Latino activists, Dobbs, who introduced himself to one worker as “Luis”, hired workers without papers to tend his mega estate and care for his daughter’s horses. The workers were allegedly forced to work 12 hour days without overtime pay.
According to Macdonald:
But with his relentless diatribes against “illegals” and their employers, Dobbs is casting stones from a house–make that an estate–of glass. Based on a yearlong investigation, including interviews with five immigrants who worked without papers on his properties, The Nation and the Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute have found that Dobbs has relied for years on undocumented labor for the upkeep of his multimillion-dollar estates and the horses he keeps for his 22-year-old daughter, Hillary, a champion show jumper.
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The upkeep of Dobbs’s multiple properties creates no small demand for labor in two sectors where undocumented immigrants are known to be particularly prevalent. Jay Hickey, president of the American Horse Council, the horse industry’s main lobby group, suggested in 2009 that more than half of the workers in his industry are likely undocumented. Likewise, studies have found that undocumented workers make up an estimated 28 percent of workers in landscaping. In both of these sectors, the use of contractors is commonplace, so it is not surprising that Dobbs has relied on third parties to supply the labor he needs. Vicky Moon, author of A Sunday Horse: Inside the Grand Prix Show-Jumping Circuit, explained that contracting out the care of one’s horses “alleviates the time involved in coordinating the horses’ care, transport, and management but it also removes the responsibility of hiring competent grooms, providing housing and meals, possibly paying Social Security taxes, health insurance and, most important, making extra sure they are legal.”
In an effort to defend himself on “The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell”, Dobbs maintained that his company had never knowingly hired undocumented workers, but acknowledged that his contractors could’ve done so:
“What I mean by indirectly is intentionally hiring a contractor who — for the specific purpose of hiring an illegal immigrant…I have never done that. Either directly or indirectly,” he said.
Nonetheless, it’s a damning report, especially since Dobbs has previously argued that employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants be charged with felony crimes.
Watch the second installment of Macdonald’s showdown with Dobbs below:
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Controversial Anti-immigrant Group Attends Immigrant Rights March
01 year ago
by Stephen Piggott
in American Renaissance, Americans For Immigration Control, Council Of Conservative Citizens, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Hate Campaign, Immigrant Rights, Immigration, Jared Taylor, John Tanton, Numbers Usa, Numbersusa, Politics, Roy Beck, White Nationalists, White Supremacist
Today in Washington D.C., Roy Beck, the executive director of the anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA will be on the National Mall debating with immigration reform marchers who are flooding to the capital from all across the country.
NumbersUSA will be streaming the event live on its website as part of a four day anti-immigrant hate campaign which began on Friday. NumbersUSA’s campaign has so far failed to live up to its own high expectations with less than one percent of its alleged 900,000 members signing its most recent “anti-amnesty” petition, a key part of the four day campaign.
Throughout the campaign, NumbersUSA has updated its twitter page constantly. On many of the tweets there is the term “#AFIRE.” This term refers to Americans for Immigration Control and Enforcement, a “National DC based office in conjunction with Americans for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (AFIRE) made up of FAIR and Numbers USA.” According to this statement on the Utah chapter of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), we can see that NumbersUSA and FAIR are actively working together. This is just another example of two John Tanton Network groups teaming up to bash immigrants.
NumbersUSA’s finances and ties to white nationalists are very disturbing. Roy Beck, the group’s executive director spoke at a 1997 Council of Conservative Citizens conference, something that has haunted Beck ever since. Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) is a white supremacist hate group. Its conferences have hosted a who’s who of the white nationalist hierarchy over the years, including Jared Taylor, founder of American Renaissance.
Beck is paid a colossal amount of money each year by NumbersUSA to spew anti-immigrant rhetoric. Beck was compensated a whopping $274,500 in 2007 alone, Beck’s paycheck is more than five times the net income of an average American.
Beck has also begun to think about the future of NumbersUSA and who will replace him at the helm when he finally retires. One of Beck’s right hand men at NumbersUSA is Chad MacDonald, the Director of Social Media Marketing for NumbersUSA. Chad recently spoke with Roy Beck and Tom Tancredo at the National Tea Party Convention, telling the crowd that each tea party group should have an “immigration expert.”
MacDonald has been busy in recent weeks in preparing for the four day anti-immigrant campaign. He has appeared in many videos, on both NumbersUSA’s website and YouTube page, discussing the immigration reform march and NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant response to it. MacDonald is a much younger and more likable alternative to Beck, making him an ideal candidate to be the new face of NumbersUSA.
The Enduring Power of Hate in Suffolk County
01 year ago
There is perhaps no other locale in the nation where anti-immigrant hatred has sunk roots as deep as those in Suffolk County, New York, where the powerful County Executive has built a career on it and where the judiciary is challenged to empanel a jury for the murder trial of a man accused of immigrant-killing for sport.
Almost a decade ago Newsday reporter Bart Jones aptly labeled Suffolk County “ground zero” of the anti-immigrant movement. As day laborers were brought in to provide low-wage labor for many of the upscale residents of the Long Island enclave, opposition to their presence began to build. The bellicose and belligerent “Sachem Quality of Life” crowd that sought to drum immigrants out of the County was subsumed by the Federation for American Immigration (FAIR)’s successful efforts to “mainstream” anti-immigrant bigotry, in spite of courageous efforts by community, religious, civic, labor, civil, and immigrant rights organizations. A decade later, the enduring power of FAIR-inspired anti-immigrant hatred is still manifest.
The New York Times reported last week that the task of empanelling an impartial Suffolk County jury for the first trial in the murder of Marcelo Lucero had become “a struggle to find tolerance.” Mr. Lucero was stabbed to death in the fall of 2008 when a group of seven teenagers out for an evening of “beaner hopping”—the “sport” of assaulting Latinos—killed him. Of 130 potential jurors interviewed over three days, only 5 were selected; the pall of anti-immigrant feeling ran deep and explicit, though subdued, among the pool of potential jurors. FAIR must have exulted—its work had, indeed, sunk deep roots.
The fact that teenagers even engaged in such “sport” is testament to the enduring power of anti-immigrant fervor in Suffolk County. Those who attacked Marcelo Lucero grew up in their formative years in an atmosphere rife with bigotry and hate that seeped into the lives of children and youth, as well as adults who, in 2010, could not serve as impartial jurors in the trial of those raised in their midst.
As the trial itself unfolds, reporter Bart Jones will likely not be writing about it for Newsday. After years of covering the anti-immigrant movement and its impact in Suffolk County, Jones has been reassigned by the newspaper, possibly under pressure from the powerful, anti-immigrant County Executive Steve Levy. Joe Strupp of Media Matters suggested last week that Levy may, indeed, have had his way at last, after complaining publicly for years about Jones’ thorough coverage of anti-immigrant activity and Levy’s own role in it. Jones helped break the 206 story that Levy was in the thick of the FAIR-inspired front group, “Mayors and Executives for Immigration Reform,” and he never let up reporting on Levy’s nefarious anti-immigrant politics. As much as the teenagers involved in the Lucero murder, Levy is testament to the enduring power of hate in Suffolk County; indeed, he is the embodiment of the political power birthed by such hatred.
In 2001 I saw the impact of this hatred when I first journeyed to Suffolk County to work with local organizations and religious leaders to counter it. Even in those early days of “ground zero,” hatred had taken deep root. As FAIR advanced its agenda in the County it became clear that it was playing a dual, pivotal role: mainstreaming its anti-immigrant mantra and, simultaneously, keeping the embers of hate glowing by ignoring the flames they would yield. In the early days neo-Nazis attracted to the County assaulted and intended to kill several immigrants. Immigrants were burned out of their residences. Hatred followed bigotry. Violence followed hatred. Murder followed violence. An immigrant died at the hands of youth raised in such an environment. An elected County Executive, a Democrat, fanned the embers, and when flames erupted he acted as if there were no heat.
Such is the enduring power of hate in Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. Unchecked, this is where anti-immigrant fervor goes, burning through neighborhoods, counties, and—as in Europe—countries as well; consuming the lives and spirits of youth and of those struggling for livelihoods and families; and making pawns of alleged leaders who smell only political opportunity in the deadly smoke of its flames.
Cross-post: Immigrants and the LGBT Community Should Support Each Other
01 year ago
Prerna Lal posted this article to Change.org’s immigrant rights blog. Heartening to see that even as immigration reform suffers, there are a few bright spots on the horizon. Kudos to the LGBT and immigrant communities for having the courage to speak up for one another.
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.
White Nationalist Rhetoric Prevalent in Mainstream Discourse
02 years ago
The term “illegal alien” or “illegal immigrant” is not acceptable in mainstream rhetoric. Not from anti-immigrant advocates and especially not from immigrant rights supporters. I sometimes hear conversations that allude to using the term “illegal” to gain support for immigration reform from people in the ‘middle’. While the argument sounds logical, the term “illegal” was inserted into the mainstream by anti-immigrant groups, and every time we use it, beyond criminalizing people, we perpetuate a racist framework.
The term “illegal alien” is fairly new. When the 14th amendment was ratified in the 1800s, the term did not exist. After 1965, when the Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, which redressed previous laws that favored immigrants from Europe, terms like “illegal Immigrant” or “illegal alien” were inserted into mainstream discourse by white nationalists. Those that saw this country as a homeland for white people – not only to be controlled economically and politically by whites, but to look white – were disturbed by the influx of people from the global south after the 1965 Act.
It was intentional on the side of anti-immigrant leaders to label immigrants of color as “alien” and as the “other”. The term “illegal” was part of the effort to repeal anti-discrimination laws passed during the civil rights era, and to enact a set of legislation and enforcement that criminalized and restricted immigrants of color from entering the country. The language created by white nationalists is reflected in so many of the comment sections of blogs and articles on immigration. Just recently, Dream Act students blasted USA Today reporter Emily Bazar when she used the term “illegal student” in an article.
Language constructs reality. So why do I find it disturbing when I hear strategies about gaining support for immigration reform by using the term “illegal”? Not only does it irk me to use the framework and language of white nationalists, but it is a way of consenting to bigotry.
While we must always act strategically and gauge our goals based on the actual political climate, when we take up the language of anti-immigrant white nationalists it is not concession; it is putting our hands up and claiming defeat. This is a time to stick to what we know is right, to use the term “undocumented”, to fight for what is true and real in the face of political games and gains. If we do, we will have laid the foundation for a society that is based on human dignity rather than fear, divisiveness and separation.
Tanton Memo of the Month – Center for Immigration Studies
02 years ago
Every month, the Center for New Community releases one of John Tanton’s personal letters and/or memos, illustrating John Tanton’s close relationships with white nationalists and the formation of today’s anti-immigrant movement. The letters and memos are a public collection at the Bentley Historical Library.
As discussions on immigration reform fill airwaves and blogs in the coming months, anti-immigrant and immigrant rights organizations will debate if immigration financially benefits American society. Currently, the John Tanton Network, a web of over two dozen organizations, is attempting to represent the interests of American workers, particularly organizations like Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Almost every month, the Center for Immigration Studies claims that immigrants drain the economy, are responsible for high unemployment and decrease wages for American workers. At the same time, John Tanton’s controversial history sings a different tune. His history suggests that the Tanton Network is more concerned with dividing American workers rather than increasing monthly wages.
John Tanton’s controversial relationships with white nationalists have yet to be fully uncovered. His friendship with Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDARE, a white nationalist website, continues to this day. Last October, Brimelow gave a presentation on Hate Crime Legislation at Tanton’s Writers Workshop, an annual gathering of anti-immigrant and white nationalist thinkers sponsored by the Social Contract Press, a project founded and financially supported by John Tanton. Mike Hethmon, the head counsel for FAIR’s legal arm, Immigration Reform Law Institute also gave a brief “legal” presentation.
Several board members and a staff member of the Center for Immigration Studies are also listed as contributors of The Social Contract, a quarterly journal published by the Social Contract Press. In fact, CIS’ Research Director, Steven Camarota, developed the article, Effects of Immigration on the Labor Market for The Social Contract’s fall 1999 issue. This isn’t surprising considering John Tanton founded the Center for Immigration Studies in the mid 1980s.
In the early fall of 1985, John Tanton began laying the financial groundwork to build his anti-immigrant think-tank. In a fundraising appeal Tanton states that, “the funding could come through U.S., Inc. instead of FAIR, if that helped keep the amounts going to any one organization to more acceptable levels. We’re in the process of setting up as independent projects both the Center for Immigration Studies and the Litigation Program.”
In a document dated September of 1985, John Tanton describes the intent behind the founding of the Center for Immigration Studies. In the document, Tanton highlights that it’s essential to develop an “independent” think-tank to win the “Battle of Ideas”.
“After careful and prolonged study, the FAIR Board has concluded that a Think-Tank on the scale of Worldwatch Institute is needed. For credibility, this will need to be independent of FAIR, though the Center for Immigration Studies, as we’re calling it, is starting off as a project of FAIR.”
In every contentious debate there are often two distinct motivations: one is a desire to solve the issue at hand, the other uses the issue to further a hidden agenda. As the Center for Immigration Studies pours out fact after fact arguing against immigration, an agenda pertaining to national identity is present yet hidden from the discussion. The only thing that is irrefutably clear is the Center for Immigration Studies’ alarming and controversial history of ties to white nationalism.
Ten Thousand March Against Arpaio
02 years ago
Yesterday’s march in Phoenix, Arizona drew 10,000 supporters locally and nationally. According to the Press Association:
Ten thousand immigrant rights advocates have marched in front of a county jail in Phoenix against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s anti-immigration policies.
A small group of demonstrators clashed with police officers in riot gear. Organisers said the protest was intended to show officials in Washington that Sheriff Arpaio has failed to handle immigration enforcement and that Congress and the Obama administration need to come up with a way for immigrant workers to come to America legally.
The marchers walked from a west Phoenix park to the Durango Jail Complex, a collection of five jails, where officials played music, including a record by singer Linda Ronstadt, to drown out noise made by protesters. Ronstadt took part in Saturday’s protest. Protesters chanted “Joe must go” as they approached the jail complex. One person carried a sign that said “We are human” and bore a picture of a lawman with a wolf’s face. A family of five wore T-shirts saying “Who would Jesus deport?”
Read more to see photos from yesterday’s march…
