S.P.L.C. Receives Kudos
The Editorial Board of the New York Times gave kudos to the Southern Poverty Law Center for their report “The Nativist Lobby,” which was released on Tues. S.P.C.L. examines the connects between three Washington-based organizations that have advocated for severe restrictions to immigration from Hispanic countries as well as restrictions for those who are here already.
The three groups examined are ones you will be very familiar with:
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies and Numbers USA — a lobbying group, think tank, and grassroots organizer, respectively. In fact, these organizations all had a hand in policy setting when the Immigration Resolution was ushered in. The criticism is strong.
According to the Editorial Board of the NYTimes:
February 4, 2009, 3:15 pm‘The Nativist Lobby’
By The Editorial Board
The Southern Poverty Law Center on Tuesday released “The Nativist Lobby,” a report examining the connections among the three Washington-based organizations that have led the charge for restricting immigration to the United States.
They are the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Center for Immigration Studies and Numbers USA — a lobbying group, think tank, and grassroots organizer, respectively.
All three groups are well known — you have probably come across their leaders denouncing immigration “amnesty” in news articles and on TV. The groups have the ear of conservative politicians all over the country, and their efforts have inspired many of the hard-line federal, state and local initiatives cracking down on immigrants and immigration. Numbers USA even took credit for a storm of blast faxes and phone calls to Congress that helped to kill a major immigration bill in 2007.
What is less well known, the report says, is what the groups have in common: histories connecting them to a retired Michigan eye doctor with a long-held interest in eugenics, racial quotas, and white nationalism.
The groups insist that they do not hold racist or extremist views. That’s good.
But the report argues that people should know about the groups’ history, something they and their allies don’t usually like to talk about. It calls them “fruit of the same poisonous tree.”Many people who want stricter policies on immigration are not racist or extremist. Many care about seeing the law enforced, or are worried about overpopulation. But it’s also true that there are racist and extremist elements in the movement, and it is important to call them out.
Kudos to the S.P.L.C. for shining a light.Does it concern anyone else that organizations described as these have been described would have any participation, direct, indirect or as a model, in setting policy in Prince William County?
I remember all the national discussion of Obama’s past associations with less than desirable groups or individuals, and that didn’t seem to cause any stir here, so why are past associations suddenly so important? These groups don’t pull any punches, and clearly state their platform and intent unlike the large numbers of minority organizations that essentially practice reverse discrimination but refuse to acknowledge the fact. There is also the matter of checks and balances since there are perhaps hundreds of pro-Hispanic organizations listed in this country, many supporting illegals including our federal government it would appear.
Here’s a short list: http://www.fundsnetservices.com/latorg.htm
Do you have a double post here?
Pinko, I dont think so. All the NYTimes articles link to each other. That might be what the confusion is. I think this thread is just about the 3 organizations.
Pinko…I came back to tell you yes and thanks. This thread kicked my butt. It still isn’t right but I have spent enough time on it. Let me know if you see anything glaring. Thanks.
Headline should read: “SPLC, having nothing constructive to do, receives Kudos”
I think what bothers me most is that a network of hate groups meddled in our democratic process. The Times mentions faxes and emails from NumbersUSA influrnced Congress. They pulled the same trick on Prince William County, causing out not-very-tech-savvy Supervisors to believe there was widespread support in the county for an unconstitutional law that mandated racial profiling … when in actuality it was a legislative ambush using weapons of hate induced hysteria aided by digital smoke and mirrors.
But let’s not forget that the silent majority rose up to defeat this measure, thanks in great part to people who participate in this blog.
Now instead of a model for how a hate network can manipulate local governments with the aid of faithless partisans in public office, we are a model for how citizens can pull together to fight back when the democratic process is corrupted.
Slow, you support those 3 organizations?
John Tanton’s relationship, to all of them, is integral to CIS and NUMBERSUSA being “born”. The reality is that if you put the pieces together, the ability of these outlier organizations to influence public policy, the media, and our national agenda is quite unsettling.
The Dream Act is supposed to be brought up for passage agin this year. This will be “Tanton’s Last Stand”.
Suppose this Tanton guy, the millionaire at the center of the Anti-Immigrant Lobby, had NOT been a white supremacist, but instead hated gays. Would FAIR, NumbersUSA, etc. be focused on California’s prop 8 instead?
I simply do not like these 3 groups having as much control over our local public policy as they have had. Representatives have been all too willing to come here and soft-pedal their agenda.
I used to belong to an organization named Zero Population Growth. I believe that there are too many people having children they cannot afford to take care of and that this practice will ultimately harm the earth. After I was a member for a while, I started getting an ooky feeling about the organization. I don’t know if I was right or not. The non-profit no longer exits to my knowledge.
Tanton isn’t past history for FAIR is he? I mean this racist, eugenicist is still on their board according to SPLC, or is that inaccurate?
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/09/19/tanton-fair-founder-racism/
As many here have noted, FAIR isn’t just against illegal immigration. It wants to drastically cut down on all immigration.
Leila, last I heard you are correct.
HI Chameleon,
Although your comment is clearly meant to be hurtful, I thought it was important for people to see how inane and juvenile some people can be. I wish you well in your “perfect” body. I would rather have outward imperfections than a mean inner spirit that often times is much harder to change.
Elena, I don’t know what comment you are referring to, but Chameleon aka Cheetah aka other names aka Elvis reveals more than he knows about his own inadequacies with his constant remarks about women here. He’s not only juvenile and misogynistic, he’s a coward and the people on the dark board who don’t call him out on this are almost as bad. I will give Emma credit for trying, but she should try more and she should shame the others into it. Do they really think it helps their cause to have criticism of this board not be on the issues, but instead be a non-stop stream of vulgar insults? Elena you give the Ch-man too much credit. You say “mean inner spirit,” that would imply he has an inner spirit. It surprises me that for the sake of the dark board’s credibility that Greg L. doesn’t rebuke this guy.