Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Immigration Reform
Pulitzer Prize Winner on DREAMing of a Better Future for Children of Immigrants
07 months ago
Today’s New York Times features an amazing, first-person account by journalist Jose Antonio Vargas about his life and career as an undocumented immigrant. Vargas writes about meeting the courageous students who have risked deportation by coming forward to advocate for passage of the DREAM Act, legislation that would provide a path to citizenship to undocumented youth who complete two years of college military service.
There are believed to be 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. We’re not always who you think we are. Some pick your strawberries care for your children. Some are in high school college. And some, it turns out, write news articles you might read. I grew up here. This is my home. Yet even though I think of myself as an American and consider America my country, my country doesn’t think of me as one of its own.
Vargas was part of a team of Washington Post reporters who won a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Virigina Tech shootings. His success, and the promise of other DREAMer students like Mandeep Chahal, an honors pre-med student at the University of California, Davis; UCLA Law School student Luis Perez; and Arizona State mechanical engineering graduate Angelica Hernandez, could be cut short if the DREAM Act does not pass.
Tell your House and Senate members to support the DREAM Act today!
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Hardcore Racists Flock to NumbersUSA’s Campaign
01 year ago
NumbersUSA deployed its counter-action to the immigration reform march in Washington D.C over the weekend. The plan, S.T.O.P Amnesty in four days, contained carefully crafted talking points that tea party and hard-core, anti-immigrant activists used to lobby state and federal lawmakers. NumbersUSA’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was used once again to demonize immigrants and create the illusion that Americans are strongly opposed to immigration reform.
In order to facilitate its efforts, NumbersUSA re-tooled its home page to include webcasts, detailed action alerts, and a social media feed. Not surprisingly, its attempt to create a web-based community backfired as its action alerts and website brought out racists, bigots, and the worst of the anti-immigrant movement. Even though NumbersUSA and the John Tanton Network claim its anti-immigrant agenda does not fuel hateful rhetoric, here are some recent examples of how NumbersUSA’s message once again created an environment where individuals and groups have felt comfortable using hate speech.
Near the end of last week, a disturbing tweet was seen on the NumbersUSA web-site. The tweet read, “Thanks@NumbersUSA we need somebody to stand up for the rights of white people. JUST SAY NO TO DIVERSITY.” This tweet echoes a common message found in the white nationalist community which claims that diversity and multiculturalism is the root of all our nation’s problems. NumbersUSA removed this tweet from its feed but failed to publically disavow the message.
In a members-only section of its website that evaluates members of Congress, NumbersUSA assigned Senator Dick Durbin an F and Senator Roland Burris an F minus on their immigration record. Under a picture of Illinois Congressman Roland Burris, a NumbersUSA member wrote, “You have disgraced yourself and the (sic) all the people of IL, especially the Black citizens. We should welcome you home with Tar and Feathers.” Another member wrote, “Only when the people show up to REMOVE these treasonous crooks will justice be served! Bring back the rope!” Despite the fact that Roland Burris is African-American and the history lynching and torture has played in our country, these horrible threats remained on NumbersUSA’s website for nearly a month before being removed.
NumbersUSA seems to be popular throughout the white nationalist and skinhead communities. At the beginning of the week NumbersUSA’s campaign was promoted by white nationalist David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. On Vinlanders Social Club, NumbersUSA is promoted on the home page with a direct link to its website. Vinlanders Social Club is a midwest coalition of racist skinhead groups with a history of violence against members of the black community.
On Stormfront, in a thread entitled, “Obama Begins Immigration Reform and Amnesty” a posting which reads like a NumbersUSA advertisement cites the details of the S.T.O.P Amnesty campaign and directs Stormfront members to the NumbersUSA website. Stormfront is the leading white nationalist, white supremacist, neo-Nazi, and skinhead social networking forum. The website was started by former Ku Klux Klan leader, Don Black, in 1995. NumbersUSA’s campaign was promoted on Stormfront the same week that a member of Stormfront wrote of his plans to carry a concealed weapon to a similar immigration reform rally in Utah.
Although NumbersUSA has actively tried to distance itself from the extreme far right, its message stills resonates deeply with these communities. Even the group’s own Executive Director, Roy Beck, has spoken to a white supremacist organization, the Council of Conservative Citizens in the past. Therefore, until NumbersUSA strongly condemns the comments made on its web-site and the promotion of its messaging on skinhead and white nationalist sites, they are not a credible voice on the important issues surrounding immigration in our country.
Anti-Immigration Group Calls Immigrants ‘Third-World Gold Diggers’
01 year ago
This post by Erin Rosa at Campus Progress describes the agenda of anti-immigrant groups that are attempting to disparage civil rights organizations.
Embattled by numerous reports of its ties to white nationalists, The Center For Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington D.C.-based think thank that strongly opposes immigration reform, lashed out today against advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Council of La Raza for participating in “smear” attacks and “manipulating the press” on the immigration issue.
But in the end, it was CIS executive director Mark Krikorian who justified his own smears, defending his groups’ labeling of immigrants as “third-world gold diggers” by calling such rhetoric “colorful language that was too colorful.”
The CIS event, held this morning in Washington, was organized to premiere CIS’s newest report, “Immigration and the SPLC,” a quasi-investigative look at the watchdog group’s research and financial records.
It’s no secret why CIS had dedicated a 27-page report to disparage the SPLC and other entities like the NCLR, a Latino advocacy organization. Both of the targeted organizations have been steadfastly producing research that ties the Center and other anti-immigration groups to white nationalism and racist rhetoric.
But rather than actually responding to anything said about CIS, the report focuses on times when SPLC allegedly took quotes from other anti-immigration groups out of context. The report also blames the media for being too “cooperative” when citing SPLC, and questions the objectivity of the watchdog group for working with pro-immigration groups like the NCLR.
In an effort to get to the bottom of some of these claims, I asked Krikorian a question, about an instance, cited by SPLC, where one of CIS’s reports (no longer on the Web site) referred to immigrants as “third-world gold diggers.”
To read the article in its entirety, click here.
Anti-Immigration Group Calls Immigrants ‘Third-World Gold Diggers’
01 year ago
This post by Erin Rosa at Campus Progress describes the agenda of anti-immigrant groups that are attempting to disparage civil rights organizations.
Embattled by numerous reports of its ties to white nationalists, The Center For Immigration Studies (CIS), a Washington D.C.-based think thank that strongly opposes immigration reform, lashed out today against advocacy groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the National Council of La Raza for participating in “smear” attacks and “manipulating the press” on the immigration issue.
But in the end, it was CIS executive director Mark Krikorian who justified his own smears, defending his groups’ labeling of immigrants as “third-world gold diggers” by calling such rhetoric “colorful language that was too colorful.”
The CIS event, held this morning in Washington, was organized to premiere CIS’s newest report, “Immigration and the SPLC,” a quasi-investigative look at the watchdog group’s research and financial records.
It’s no secret why CIS had dedicated a 27-page report to disparage the SPLC and other entities like the NCLR, a Latino advocacy organization. Both of the targeted organizations have been steadfastly producing research that ties the Center and other anti-immigration groups to white nationalism and racist rhetoric.
But rather than actually responding to anything said about CIS, the report focuses on times when SPLC allegedly took quotes from other anti-immigration groups out of context. The report also blames the media for being too “cooperative” when citing SPLC, and questions the objectivity of the watchdog group for working with pro-immigration groups like the NCLR.
In an effort to get to the bottom of some of these claims, I asked Krikorian a question, about an instance, cited by SPLC, where one of CIS’s reports (no longer on the Web site) referred to immigrants as “third-world gold diggers.”
To read the article in its entirety, click here.
The Implied Bigotry of NumbersUSA
01 year ago
by Jill Garvey
in Americans For Better Immigration, Californians For Population Stabilization, Council for Conservative Citizens, David Duke, Grassroots Organization, Immigration, Immigration Reform, John Tanton, Numbersusa Action, NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation, Politics, Population Control, Roy Beck, White Nationalism
Beck at a CofCC event
NumbersUSA operates at the nerve center of the most influential anti-immigrant network in the country.
This network, created by John Tanton, consists of over two dozen lobby, legal, legislative, and environmental groups that have penetrated mainstream social and political discourse. Of late, no group has been more successful than NumbersUSA, which is leading a vicious campaign against immigration reform advocates. NumbersUSA was founded in 1997 under the financial umbrella of Tanton’s U.S., Inc.
Unlike Tanton’s other groups, NumbersUSA strategically avoids overt white nationalist rhetoric in favor of emphasizing the alleged negative economic and environmental impacts of immigrants. Based in Arlington, VA, NumbersUSA presently consists of three legally distinct but financially intertwined organizations: NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation, NumbersUSA Action, Inc., and Americans for Better Immigration.
Roy Beck is the executive director of NumbersUSA Education & Research Foundation, NumbersUSA Action, Inc., and chairman of Americans for Better Immigration. Looking at Form 990s from each group, Beck is listed as a paid employee at all three. Compensated a whopping $274,500 in 2007 alone, Beck’s paycheck is more than five times the net income of an average American. Not bad for a gig at a “grassroots” organization.
Last week Beck laid bare his plot, called “S.T.O.P. Amnesty” to defeat a powerful march for immigration reform. NumbersUSA’s troops of choice are tea partiers and hard-core anti-immigrant activists. Beck all but ordered fractured tea partiers to fall in line behind his anti-immigrant agenda on a conference call last week. As evidenced at the national tea party convention, beating up on immigrants appeals to many tea party members; however, one has to wonder if they would be so enthusiastic were they to know about Beck’s views on population control.
Just in case the tea partiers don’t stick to the anti-immigrant talking points, Roy Beck is using his environmental background and population growth “expertise” to push anti-immigrant sentiment among the conservation crowd.
Under a coalition called America’s Leadership Team for Long Range Population Immigration-Resource Planning, NumbersUSA is partnering with the American Immigration Control Foundation (AICF). AICF president John Vinson regularly writes for the white supremacist organization Council of Conservative Citizens. Vinson is also a founding member of the racist League of the South.
This year NumbersUSA released a report with Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). Rick Oltman, the media director of CAPS, was listed as a member by the Council of Conservative Citizens. Oltman also lost a Republican Party post in California after he supported physical attacks on undocumented immigrants.
While population growth is certainly a legitimate issue to address, just based on its ties to white nationalism as outlined above, NumbersUSA should be excluded from the discussion.
NumbersUSA supporters argue that the organization is merely a grassroots operation trying to protect American workers, but they conveniently ignore its ties to organized bigotry and murky financial structure. At the beginning of the week NumbersUSA’s campaign was heartily promoted by white nationalist David Duke. Nothing conveys “tolerance” quite like a pat on the back from a former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
And what should be made of yesterday’s alert on NumbersUSA’s website that stated, “Organizers for the Amnesty March are providing transportation for marchers and have a website dedicated to helping marchers organize before Sunday. Immigration Equality is also providing transportation for the LGBT community, encouraging them to take part in the Amnesty March.”
It sounds as if NumbersUSA is pushing the buttons of some of its say, more extreme supporters, who may be into both gay and immigrant bashing.
Whether it’s in far-right conservative, working-class, or environmental communities, NumbersUSA, along with a host of related anti-immigrant groups, is trying to stir up trouble, not find solutions.
The answers to immigration issues will not be found through NumbersUSA’s brand of political extremism, but rather a vision that includes immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens working together to achieve a better life for all Americans.
Crosspost: Gut Check for GOP on Immigration
01 year ago
by Imagine 2050 Editors
in Border Enforcement, Chuck Schumer, Democratic Majority, Demographic Group, Government Pass, Gut Check, Immigration, Immigration Reform, Immigration System, Legal Immigration, Lindsey Graham, Partisan Effort, Partisan Support, Politics, Quiet Battle, Robert Creamer, Senate Majority Leader, Senate Majority Leader Harry, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Chuck Schumer, Senator Lindsey Graham, Unfair Labor Practices
Robert Creamer from Huffington Post talks bi-partisan support and the choice before the GOP when it comes to immigration.
There is a quiet battle underway within the Republican Party that may soon break out into the open — and it will heavily impact whether the GOP can continue as a national political party in the decades ahead.
The conflict is over how the Party will position itself with respect to the question of immigration reform — and just as importantly — the fastest-growing demographic group in country: Hispanic Americans.
President Obama has made it clear that he is intent on fixing the broken immigration system by passing immigration reform. He would do it with a package that combines smart and effective border enforcement with a crackdown on illegal hiring and unfair labor practices, and by modernizing the legal immigration system and requiring those who are undocumented to register with the government, pass background checks, study English, pay taxes, and get in line to work towards citizenship.
That would make sure that those who are here, are in the system legally; that all workers and employers are paying their fair share of taxes; and that those immigrants who come in the future do so legally.
But, more than with most any other issue, passing immigration reform requires bipartisan support — both as a question of legislative math and politics.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has been deputized by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) — himself a strong advocate of reform — to be point man on this issue for the Democratic Majority. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has worked with Schumer for months to hammer out the specifics of a bi-partisan bill.
Most of the substantive issues appear to be close to resolution. The major outstanding problem is entirely political: will other Republicans be willing to join Graham and provide support for a truly bi-partisan effort?
Read more here.
English-only Policies Threaten Civil Rights
01 year ago
Tomorrow marks the 42nd anniversary of the Chicano Student walkout from LA high schools in 1968.
Bold Chicano students organized high school students across east LA to demand the right to speak their language without institutionally sanctioned abuse in their high schools. Students were forbidden from speaking Spanish in class or from using the restrooms during lunchtime.
While nearly 70% of the high school students in east LA originated from a Spanish speaking country, the teachers were mandated to physically abuse and humiliate students in front of the rest of the class who spoke Spanish. The common drill: a young person slipped and responded to a question in Spanish. The teacher calls the student to the front of the room demanding that they place their hands out for the class to see, and proceeds to use a baton against their hands until blood is drawn.
Despite the restrictive environment that rang loud across the halls “you do not belong here”, Chicano/a students, emboldened by civil rights gains in the 1960s, took democracy, freedom and equality into their own hands. On March 3rd, 1968, over 20,000 students and families took to the streets in east LA to demand equal language rights in their high schools. 13 students were arrested and many more beaten with batons. Months later, high school across east LA were forced to reconsider their English only policies and in 1964 the Civil Rights Act was passed which called an end to discrimination based on sex and race within public institutions – a huge victory for our nation.
42 years later, those gains and the civil rights struggle that underpinned them, are under attack. Pro-English and U.S. English, two organizations in the John Tanton Network have recently introduced a bill that opens the door for employers to enforce English-only policies in the workplace. The bill, H.R. 1588 – Common Sense English Act, was introduced by Rep. Tom Price R-GA – a member of the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC), which was founded by virulent anti-immigrant former congressman Tom Tancredo and supported by the Tanton Network. H.R. 1588 would rescind the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that removed barriers based on sex and race in the workplace.
Unfortunately H.R. 1588, is one of many English Only Bills that have been drafted and introduced by John Tanton Network affiliates in recent years. The English Language Unity Act of 2009 introduced by Rep. Steve King R-IA, another HIRC member, is another on a seemingly endless list.
If not now, then when? In the name of Chicano Students who walked out of their classrooms, risking their future to demand opportunity and dignity, we might ask ourselves the question, what will it take for us to step out equally as bold against bigotry and racism now?
Anti-immigrant Leader Admits Using Climate Change for Political Gain
01 year ago
by Guest Blogger
in Center for Immigration Studies, Climate Change, Conservative Political Action Conference, Ecopolitics, global warming, Heritage Foundation, Immigration, Immigration Policy, Immigration Reform, James Russell, John Tanton Network, Mark Krikorian, Numbersusa, Progressives for Immigration Reform, Steve King, Wayne Lutton
by Rebecca Poswolsky and Dave M.
The anti-immigrant movement has long capitalized on environmental concerns to attack America’s immigrant communities. This tactic was on full display at the Conservative Political Action Conference this past weekend in Washington D.C.
While most people were listening to Newt Gingrich speak on Saturday, about 75 people assembled in one of the smaller rooms to hear a discussion entitled “Immigration: The Defining Issue for the Republican Party,” sponsored by American Council for Immigration Reform. The panel’s four speakers included: Robert E. Rector, Senior Research Fellow, The Heritage Foundation; Mark Krikorian, Executive Director, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS); James G. Gimpel, Professor of Government, University of Maryland; and Rep. Steve King from Iowa. Each speaker had 20 minutes to speak, followed by a question and answer session. The audience boasted a whole host of anti-immigrant individuals including Chad McDonald from NumbersUSA; Wayne Lutton, editor of The Social Contract; Howard Wooldridge, younger brother of anti-immigrant activist Frosty Wooldridge; and James Russell of Catholics for a Moral Immigration Policy.
A number of alarming comments were made by the panelists throughout the session. Rep. Steve King stated that he “sympathized” with the man who crashed his plane into the IRS building in Texas this past weekend. When asked later in the Q&A session about his comments, King did not take them back and instead launched into a rant against the IRS for targeting him in his pre-political days.
Mark Krikorian, a man known for his outlandish comments, stated that immigrants are “19th century rural peasant workers” who are coming to 21st century America.
The discussion’s most alarming comment came during the Q&A session when a young man asked Mark Krikorian why CIS published articles that supported the theory of global warming on its website. The man also asked Krikorian to explain his and CIS’s connections to John Tanton whom he referred to as a man that “favors population control.”
Krikorian nonchalantly answered the first question by stating that CIS publishes articles that are in favor of global warming to force a wedge between different people on the Left. Krikorian argued that people on the Left cannot be in favor of both open borders and taking care of the environment.
Assertions such as Krikorian’s – that non-draconian border policy is a prominent cause of eco-ruin – have little stock with serious environmental thinkers, which of course does not prevent Center for Immigration Studies from producing slanted reports on the topic. What is surprising is Krikorian’s candor about his organization’s true goal – to strategically deploy pseudo-environmental rhetoric to split its opposition.
His comments at the Conservative Political Action Conference also suggest that Krikorian’s veneer of environmental concern is so thin, that common work with global warming deniers and anti-environmentalists is not beneath him. Maybe this is unsurprising for someone whose career involves promoting white nationalist ideas while adamantly claiming that he is not a racist – a phenomenon we’ve also seen with Roy Beck of NumbersUSA, who co-authored a 2003 report for CIS. Both NumbersUSA and Center for Immigration Studies were established by John Tanton as front groups for his anti-immigrant network.
Aiding in Krikorian’s enviro-wedging strategy are characters such as Phillip Cafaro, of the misnamed “Progressives for Immigration Reform” (PFIR, which is also part the Tanton Network.) Cafaro and PFIR exist as an element of the “wedging” strategy explained by Krikorian at last week’s conservative gathering. Phil Cafaro also participates in the Weeden Foundation-funded “Apply the Brakes” project, which gives an anti-immigrant spin to concerns about human population levels. Cafaro’s level of commitment to “progressive” causes was recently demonstrated by his linking, on January 12 of this year, from the PFIR blog that he maintains to the white nationalist Social Contract Press website.
Coincidentally, Social Contract’s editor, Wayne Lutton, was at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington D.C. this past Friday to cheer on his anti-immigrant associates. In addition to releasing racist publications, Lutton is also active with the overtly racist magazine American Renaissance and the flagship publication of the Council of Conservative Citizens. The Council of Conservative Citizens is the reconstituted, segregationist White Citizens’ Councils.
It is clear that Krikorian and the rest of the Tanton Network don’t care one bit about the environment. They only use climate change concerns to widen an anti-immigrant platform.
Imprisoned Freedom
01 year ago
The days pass and pass; it has been more than a year of promises and hopes of freedom for the immigrants in this nation. At this point they have not seen any of the promises fulfilled and hopes are vanishing. It is hard to accept that in this nation of freedom and justice for all, that freedom and justice are imprisoned by the decisions of a few politicians.
I remember a time when the presidential campaigns were offering immigration reform to obtain votes from the Latino population, but now I see that immigration reform is a subject that is not discussed. Now it is another year of elections and I don’t hear a lot in regards to immigration reform because it is apparently controversial and damaging for some political careers. Without care for the benefits that millions of inhabitants of this great nation would have, I hear talking of how to diminish the unemployment and to improve the economy. However, I do not know how is possible that a solution that would be more efficient is being ignored.
In my experience, day in and day out talking with migrant workers, I hear that they don’t buy a house, car, or other things because of their situation. They say that their lives are unsure and unstable as migrants. Some people have TPS (Temporary Protected Status), another 12 million are considered undocumented, and millions more that have TPS will not be given the opportunity to have a stable permanent status. What if all of these working families could be free to work hard and build a life here in America?
If immigrants could come out of the shadows it would make an economic market with millions of new homes, cars, and more. Those sales could create millions of new jobs, more sales taxes, and generate a stronger economy. Plus millions would create new businesses and companies that would create even more jobs. Isn’t this a concrete, efficient and logical solution?
LIBERTAD ENCARCELADA
Los días pasan y pasan, hace ya mas de un año que promesas y esperanzas para los inmigrantes en la nación de la libertad fueron dadas, a estas alturas lo único que se ha visto son promesas sin cumplir y esperanzas desvaneciéndose, es difícil aceptar que en esta gran nación de la libertad y la justica para todos, esa libertad y justicia están encarceladas en las decisiones políticas. Recuerdo en la época de campaña presidencial los ofrecimientos de una reforma migratoria para poder obtener el voto de los latinos sin embargo ahora veo que una reforma migratoria no es un tema que se quiera abordar. Ahora también en un año de elecciones, no escucho hablar mucho de una reforma migratoria porque seria controversial y dañino para algunos en sus carreras políticas sin importar lo beneficioso que seria para millones de habitantes de esta gran nación, escucho hablar de cómo disminuir el desempleo y mejorar la economía mas sin embargo una solución que seria muy eficaz, parece estar siendo ignorada. En mi experiencia dia a dia, hablando con trabajadores inmigrantes escucho decir que no compran una casa o un carro u otras cosas porque su situación migratoria es incierta e inestable aún para los que ya poseen un TPS (status de protección temporal) si a esos 12 millones que se considera que están indocumentados y otros cuantos millones que ya tienen un TPS se les diera una oportunidad de tener un status migratorio estable, serian también Millones de casas, carros, etc.etc. que se podrían vender creando asi millones de nuevos empleos y generando grandes ingresos a la economía eso sin contar también los millones que se tendrían que pagar por cargos de procesamiento y la creación de nuevos negocios y empresas que ahora muchos no pueden hacerlo. Acaso no es esa una solución, lógica, concreta y eficaz?
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.