Alliance of White Anti-Racists Everywhere – Los Angeles
Southern Poverty Law Center
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.
Sheriff Arpaio Joins Forces with Anti-immigrant Attorney
01 year ago
by Sarah Viets
in American Renaissance, Civil Rights, Federation For American Immigration Reform, Gop Candidate, Hate Group, Immigration, Immigration Reform Law Institute, Joe Arpaio, John Tanton, Kris Kobach, Maricopa County, Politics, Sheriff Arpaio, Southern Poverty Law Center, Wayne Lutton, White Nationalists
Joe Arpaio has found a new friend who is just as controversial as the sheriff himself. Kris Kobach and Arpaio appeared together at a press conference yesterday afternoon to unveil a new program that trains officers to target immigrants. Kobach, a GOP candidate for Secretary of State in Kansas, works for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). According IRLI’s website, it is the “public interest law affiliate of the Federation for American Immigration Reform” aka FAIR, designated as a hate group by the civil rights organization Southern Poverty Law Center.
Before detailing FAIR’s controversial relationships with white nationalists, let’s first examine Kobach’s colleague at IRLI, Mike Hethmon. Hethmon has worked with John Tanton (the founder of FAIR) for nearly nine years. Just last fall he attended Tanton’s annual Writers Workshop. In fact, Hethmon began his “legal overview” presentation by personally thanking “Dr. Tanton for hosting and sustaining what is now I believe 33 years of the Writers Workshop.” Hethmon also added that he has “had the privilege of attending for several years.”
What is even more disturbing is Hethmon’s association with two other attendees: Peter Brimelow, the founder of VDARE, a website dedicated to “race-betterment,” and Wayne Lutton, editor of The Social Contract, a quarterly white nationalist journal published by John Tanton. According to a recent article Lutton also writes for the anti-Semitic publication Occidental Quarterly and was scheduled to give a presentation on immigration issues during an anti-Black annual conference sponsored by American Renaissance.
After reviewing the long list of these troubling relationships, it’s hard to tell if immigration is the only issue of concern for Kris Kobach and the Immigration Reform Law Institute.
But the Immigration Reform Law Institute’s attorneys don’t just rub elbows with hate groups and far-right extremists, both Kobach and Hethmon have received significant financial support from FAIR. According to tax documents, FAIR has paid Hethmon over $400,000 and Kobach $125,000. In 2004, Kobach also accepted $10,000 from the U.S. Immigration Reform PAC, formerly known as the FAIR PAC. Perhaps IRLI’s legal counselors are merely following in the footsteps of their financial backers.
Arpaio’s office has not disclosed where it got the funds to pay Kris Kobach. Maybe the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office is receiving a little help in that department.
According to several documents, John Tanton, the founder of FAIR, solicited and successfully received over 1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund. The Pioneer Fund is a foundation committed to eugenics and “scientific racism” used to justify the crimes of Nazi Germany.
FAIR also hired members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, an organization originally developed to fight integration during the Civil Rights Movement. When civil rights organizations asked FAIR to explain its controversial relationships, particularly its funding sources, FAIR’s current president Dan Stein stated, “I don’t give a sh*t what they do with their money, my job is to get every dime of Pioneer’s money.”
In 1989, John Tanton wrote, “I have all along seen the immigration battle as really a skirmish in a wider war . . .” Since that time critics of Tanton have worried that his “wider war” is one steeped in racism and white nationalism.
Yesterday’s development should alarm Maricopa County residents. Kobach’s ongoing relationship with the Immigration Reform Law Institute and FAIR is disturbing. According to a Kansas City Star article, Kobach blamed his loss of a 2004 Senate race on a series of ads “that charged Kobach with associating with groups that had white supremacist ties.” Kobach said he underestimated the ads’ effect. Perhaps he thought Kansas voters would support a candidate who works for a hate group. Gratefully, he was wrong.
If voters in Kansas stood tall against bigotry, so should Maricopa County.
Roy Beck Appearance Raises Concern
02 years ago
The word is the National Council for Science and the Environment did not boot Roy Beck from its conference on Thursday, and it didn’t turn out too well. Attendees to Beck’s session were given detailed leaflets beforehand explaining his associations to the John Tanton Network and white nationalism and voiced their concerns about his relationships during the session.
Following up on our recent post about the NCSE, here is an excerpt from Erin Rosa’s in-depth article at Campus Progress:
What was supposed to be an annual convention of environmental scientists and influential policymakers quickly turned into a political polemic after some discovered that a speaker at one of the event’s breakout sessions had close ties to white supremacists.
Due to what researchers say is growing trend of radical right-wing groups using the environmental protection movement to push their own nativist agenda, convention organizers may have unknowingly given legitimacy to an alleged white nationalist. Experts studying hate groups in the United States were shocked to find out that Roy Beck, a former environmental journalist and current executive director of the anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, was invited to speak yesterday at the 10th National Conference on Science, Policy, and the Environment (NCSPE) held at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C., Beck was scheduled this week to speak on “Perverse Incentives, Subsidies, and Tax Code Impediments to a Sustainable Economy” and how they relate to the convention’s “New Green Economy” theme.
The event was organized by the National Council for Science and the Environment (NCSE), a nonprofit that works to “improve the scientific basis of environmental decision making” and one that is hardly known for having a political agenda. But for years, watchdog groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) have been documenting Beck’s intimate connections to the white power movement.
Read the entire article here.
Anti-Immigrant Forces Hold Rally in Maryland
02 years ago
The Sanctuary posted a great article by CASA de Maryland about an anti-immigrant rally with very low attendance. If only all anti-immigrant events were as unpopular.
Last week, a conglomeration of anti-immigrant groups, led by “Help Save Maryland” and FAIR (recognized a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center), organized a rally against my organization, CASA de Maryland.
The heavily promoted rally, which was announced in CAPITAL LETTERS on the website of Help Save Maryland, was supposed to draw the anti-immigrant forces from around the state. Their website implored:
JOIN HELP SAVE MARYLAND, PEOPLE FOR CHANGE IN PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM (FAIR) AND OTHER CITIZEN GROUPS!
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 12-1 PM, AT CASA OF MARYLAND’S LAWLESS DAY LABORER CENTER, 734 UNIVERSITY BLVD E (NEAR PINEY BRANCH RD), SILVER SPRING 20903.
LIVE COVERAGE OF OUR EVENT BY WFMD 930AM FREDERICK RADIO!
Don’t let the threat of a few raindrops and snowflakes scare you off.
The Rally Against CASA of Maryland and Illegal Immigration in ON!
HSM Members are driving in from Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Baltimore City, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Washington Counties.
Now, before I go on, it’s important to note that many political-types in Washington actually believe that the anti-immigrant forces are vast and numerous— not just noisy. Because of this, conventional wisdom on how immigration is hard to change. Well, for anyone in DC who missed how badly anti-immigrant candidates lost in 2008, please turn your attention to Maryland.
Continue post at The Sanctuary.