NumbersUSA Addicted to Bigotry

June 8, 2009 by Eric Ward
Filed under: Immigration 
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The anti-immigration group NumbersUSA is continuing to strengthen its relationship to white nationalists despite claims to the contrary made by executive director Roy Beck. The national civil rights organization Center for New Community made public a new video produced by NumbersUSA that allegedly speaks to immigration and the economy. But it actually spotlights individuals affiliated with a network created by white nationalist John Tanton.

According to Roy Beck, the video released on June 5 called Immigration 103 — American Trauma: Jobs and the Economy serves to give these individuals “a soapbox to explain how elected leaders use high immigration to drive down the wages of — and throw out of work — many of the country’s most vulnerable citizens…” Beck’s NumbersUSA intentionally ignores two important facts in the video. The first is that the claim that immigrants are destroying the economy is utterly false and the second is that eight of the ten experts highlighted in the video are part of the John Tanton Anti-Immigrant Network, a network with ties to political extremists including white nationalists.

In an attempt to breed anti-immigrant hysteria in American society, NumbersUSA decides not to mention a recent report by Rob Paral & Associates. According to the Immigration Policy Center the report “demonstrates that, even in the midst of the current economic recession, there is no correlation between the presence of immigrants in the labor market of a particular locale and the unemployment rate among native-born whites, blacks, Latinos, or Asians”.

The Immigration Policy Center also points out that Beck’s NumbersUSA conveniently forgets the study conducted in 2006 by economist Giovanni Peri of the University of California-Davis. Peri found that in the period between 1990 and 2004 nearly 90% of the native-born workers with a high-school diploma or more experienced wage gains because of the benefit of immigration to U.S. society.

In the video the so-called experts do not refer to these studies because the facts would get in the way of NumbersUSA attempts to manipulate the public into adopting its anti-immigrant bigotry. It’s also why NumbersUSA chooses not to mention the background of its “experts.”

One person appearing as an “expert” on immigration issues is Roan Garcia-Quintana. I suspect that viewers of the video would find it useful to know that Garcia-Quintana was also a participant at the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens 2008 national conference. The Council of Conservative Citizens is reconstituted white citizens’ councils that fought for segregation during the 1960s.

Also appearing in the video is Dan Stein, president of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), founded by white nationalist John Tanton (Tanton is still a current board member of the organization). FAIR has taken over 1.2 million dollars from the anti-black Pioneer Fund. When asked by a journalist about values of the Pioneer Fund Stein said “I don’t give a shit what they do with their money . . .”

Also appearing in the video as experts are Robert Rector and John Fonte both contributors to Social Contract Press (SCP). SCP is a white nationalist periodical headed by John Tanton and Wayne Lutton. An active leader of the Council of Conservative Citizens, Lutton also writes for the anti-Semitic Occidental Quarterly.

In a February 2009 interview in the civil rights publication The Intelligence Report published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Roy Beck worked overtime to downplay his connection with John Tanton and his anti-immigrant network. Beck himself worked for John Tanton before starting NumbersUSA.

For Beck and NumbersUSA bigotry is like an addictive drug. When you’re an addict you will lie, cheat and steal to hold on to your drugs. With the launch of NumbersUSA’s new video, Beck moves from being a bigotry addict to being its pusher.

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