Politics

Roy Beck: Bogus Immigration Expert

Written by Cloee Cooper

Roy Beck of NumbersUSA has been called out as a pseudo-environmentalist, a big fat liar, and president of an organization connected to the white nationalist, anti-immigrant John Tanton Network.  And still, for some reason, folks in mainstream media think this guy is a good source on all things immigration.  Not only is he not an expert on immigration, he is a political extremist dressed up in progressive drag. Roy Beck deserves a big ol’ boot from media rolodexes. Here are eight reasons why he’s less of an expert source and more of a hater:

1. Roy Beck speaks for white supremacist audiences and admits to it! In 1997, NumbersUSA’s founder and… Read more

News

Huff Hosts Nativist Posts

Written by Rev. David L. Ostendorf

Next time you log onto the Huffington Post be aware that it is hosting anti-immigrant nativists posing as “Progressives for Immigration Reform” (PFIR), a front group spun out by the white nationalist Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the very hub of the infamous John Tanton Network. The first PFIR column by its executive director, Leah Durant, appeared last week; more are said to be coming, twice weekly.  Hosting PFIR puts Huff Post up there—almost—with The Nation magazine, which has unashamedly taken significant paid advertising from other FAIR fronts, the “Coalition for the Future American… Read more

Immigration

Arizona Laws Dismantle a Century of American Progress

Written by James E. Johnson Jr.

Not since Back to the Future III has history been rolled back as much as we have seen done by the Arizona State Legislature this year. In just one legislative session the Arizona has brought back into fashion second class citizenship based on racial division. The legislature and governor of Arizona have taken us back in time to the pre-Civil Rights era.

Many of the gains made because of the civil rights efforts of Americans in the 1950s and ‘60s have been tossed out with the U.S. Constitution, by Arizona state lawmakers. SB 1070, called the ‘papers please’ law, requires all people in the state of Arizona to have documentation proving that they are… Read more

Politics

Glenn Beck Revises America’s Tragic History of Slavery

Written by Jill Garvey

When a media personality makes more news than he actually reports, then there is something seriously amiss. Such has been the case with Glenn Beck for some time. His conspiracy theories and far right rhetoric continually stoke the embers of glowering racial tensions in this nation. Lately, that has been no more apparent than in his revisionism of slavery in America.

In a radio clip from his program on June 25, Beck falsely claims that during the revolutionary war there was “no delineation between white and black” soldiers.

Immigration

Cross-post: Ipalnemoani: That For What We Live For

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Originally posted June 25, 2010 on Column of the Americas

By Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez

As we prepare to get arrested as a result of the passage of a new anti-ethnic studies law in Arizona, several attorneys explain to about 30-40 of us in Tucson’s state building the consequences of getting arrested. As such, the numbers are winnowed down to 15 due to legal reasons, parental authority, age, etc. Many of those making these decisions are middle and high school and college students.

All of us who remain on the 2nd floor have thoughts racing through our minds. As I think about why I will get arrested, all I can think of is the

… Read more

Politics

Cross-Post: 20 Other States Considering Copying Arizona Immigration Law

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

John Miller for Huffington Post:

BOISE, Idaho — Arizona’s sweeping new immigration law doesn’t even take effect until next month, but lawmakers in nearly 20 other states are already clamoring to follow in its footsteps. Gubernatorial candidates in Florida and Minnesota are singing the law’s praises, as are some lawmakers in other states far from the Mexico border such as Idaho and Nebraska. But states also are watching legal challenges to the new law, and whether boycotts over it will harm Arizona’s economy.

The law, set to take effect July 29, requires police to check the immigration status of anyone they think is in the country illegally. Violators face up to six months in

… Read more

News

New Anti-Immigrant Spokespersons Carry On FAIR’s Dirty Work

Written by Jill Garvey

After Rachel Maddow’s credibility crippling exposé on the Federation for American Immigration (FAIR), the anti-immigrant movement’s linchpin is still finding ways to sneak comments into mainstream media stories on immigration. Although many news outlets have avoided citing the group since Dan Stein’s embarrassing debate with Maddow, the organization continues to pop up in national papers such as The Washington Post and USA Today. Rarely do newspapers describe the group for what it really is, an anti-immigrant hate group. Instead mainstream media seems more comfortable… Read more

Politics

Roy Beck Visits Mentor, John Tanton

Written by Stephen Piggott

On June 21, the anti-immigrant blog The Castillo Chronicles reported that NumbersUSA president Roy Beck and his wife were in Petoskey, Michigan last week. Petoskey is the home of the founder of the modern day anti-immigrant movement, John Tanton. Tanton’s web of anti-immigrant organizations continue to enjoy mainstream credibility despite their strong ties to white nationalism. One of Tanton’s organizations, NumbersUSA, is currently under the leadership of Roy Beck. Despite his repeated denials, Beck has a longstanding relationship with Tanton and his visit to his old friend and mentor in Michigan is no surprise.

In the past, Beck downplayed his relationship with Tanton, most notably in Senate hearings in 2001 and… Read more

Immigration

Immigration Reform Benefits American Economy

Written by Carlos Rich

Why would immigration reform make sense from an economic and labor point of view?  Many are saying that immigrants come here and are taking away jobs from lots of “Americans”.  That’s not entirely true for a couple of reasons. First, most jobs that immigrants hold here are low-skilled, hard and dangerous.  Second, these jobs are not being filled by Americans regardless of whether there are immigrants willing to take them.

For example, in the meat processing industry many of the workers are immigrants or refugees.  To solve many of the problems involving labor laws and workplace safety violations, wages need to be raised and employers held accountable for not complying with safety standards. Perhaps the… Read more

Immigration

Immigrants and Fundraising

Written by Joan Flanagan

Una Okonkwo Osili has been an immigrant twice. She is the daughter of an American mother and a Nigerian father who met as students at Cornell University. When she was six months old, the family moved from New York to Enugu, Nigeria, where she grew up among thousands of other immigrants looking for jobs in the Nigerian Oil Boom in the 1970s. When she was 15 she came back to America, where she got her BA at Harvard, and then got her Masters and PhD in economics from Northwestern University. Again she rode a wave of immigration as America’s foreign born population increased 57 percent, to 31.1 million.

Today Dr. Osili is the Director… Read more