A Quick Look at the Arrests in North Carolina

Written by Glenn Hutchinson

This week in Charlotte, NC, undocumented students bravely spoke out against a system that discourages education and creates fear against the immigrant community.

On Tuesday, September 6, members of the NC Dream Team held a rally on the campus of Central Piedmont Community College. North Carolina has made it very difficult for undocumented students to pursue an education.  They have to pay out-of-state tuition and also wait until the last day of registration to sign-up for classes, which leaves them with very few options.

After sharing their stories on campus, the NC7 marched and held a sit-in at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Charlotte.  People gathered in support with signs, cheering on… Read more

#YAWN: Tanton Network’s “Progressives” For Immigration Reform: Immigrants are Stealing American Jobs!!!

Written by Guest Blogger

by Jesse Sanes

The anti-immigrant group Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) sought to continue its blind, stumbling march down its not-so-progressive path this past week.

PFIR attempts to lure so called “progressives” into a fight for what the group considers just immigration policies. That in mind, it’s blatantly clear that PFIR has another motive all together, showing the group’s true colors by calling for an “immigration moratorium” in a recent release.

Obviously, there is nothing – absolutely nothing at all – “progressive” about calling for an end to all immigration.

Since it is a John Tanton Network spin-off group from Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), PFIR’s call for an immigration… Read more

#NATIVISM: Three Tanton Groups Release 9/11 Anniversary Immigration Reports

Written by Guest Blogger

by Jerry Higgins

Every generation has had their own “Where were you when….?” moment. The tenth anniversary of the current generation’s moment is in three days time.

Some organizations, sadly, are also using the tenth anniversary to promote their own agendas. The anti-immigrant group FAIR, founded by white nationalist John Tanton, has issued a report titled, “Ten Years Later: We Will Not Forget.” Fellow anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies, also founded by John Tanton, has also released a report titled, “Border Watchlisting a Decade After 9/11.” A third group, 9/11 Families for A Secure America, who are yet again linked to the John Tanton Network, have released, “Report Card on… Read more

CIS to Host Panel on Border Security on September 15th

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) will be hosting an panel titled, “Our Borders a Decade after 9/11″ on Thursday, September 15th in Room 2237 of Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC. The panelists include Jessica Vaughan and Janice Kephart of CIS and Roy Beck, president and founder of the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA. The panel will be moderated by Mark Krikorian, head of CIS.

Not In Our Town National Week of Action: Communities Stand Together Against Hate

Written by Guest Blogger

by Catharine Debelle

A hate crime is reported nearly every hour in this country. These attacks not only harm the victim but create a climate of fear that reverberates across entire communities. This month, communities across the country join in a week of action to prevent hate crimes.

Hate violence often serves to silence those opposed to the politics of division. Hate crime scholars Jack Levin and Jack McDevitt have argued for years that such violence carries a chilling effect beyond the individual victim; biased crimes put a whole community – especially those who can identify with the victim – on edge because of the targeted nature of such acts. In this way biased crimes, like… Read more

Cross-Post: Seven Undocumented Youth Speak Out Against Federal Inaction and the Lack of Educational Access

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

This piece was originally posted at NCDreamTeam.org by Domenic Powell & Jose Torres-Don

Risk arrest at ‘coming out’ action in 287(g) county

One year before the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, undocumented youth from across the state will speak out against the threats they face at the hands of this Administration and the lack of educational access nationwide. The rally will take place today at 1PM on the Central Campus of Central Piedmont Community College.

“I am breaking my silence and speaking out against the injustices my community, my brother, and I are suffering,” said Angelica Velazquillo, one of the participants in the day’s action. Velazquillo graduated Magna Cum Laude from Belmont Abbey College in

… Read more

Out Come the Wolves: Anti-Immigrant Horde “Testifies” at Rep. Daryl Metcalfe’s PA Hearings

Written by Stephen Piggott

Last week, Pennsylvania Rep. Darryl Metcalfe held hearings in his home state to discuss a plethora of anti-immigrant bills that he wants to implement.

Metcalfe invited some of the anti-immigrant movement’s main players to testify on behalf of the anti-immigrant bills. He not only invited national anti-immigrant groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), and also Pennsylvanians for Immigration Control and Enforcement, an anti-immigrant group listed by FAIR as a state contact.

Metcalfe has had a long history of being tied to the anti-immigrant movement in the United States, so his litany of anti-immigrant testifiers should surprise no one familiar with him… Read more

FAIR Releases Report on National Security

Written by Imagine 2050 Editors

Anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) released a new report today titled, “Ten Years Later: We Will Not Forget” by Jack Martin. The report outlines changes in national security policies that FAIR would like to implement. The report also criticizes the Obama Administration for its decision to potentially halt deportations of immigrants who they deem not to be a threat to national security or violent criminals.

The Colcom Foundation: Bankrolling the Greening of Hate

Written by Rebecca Poswolsky

The Colcom Foundation not only funds prominent John Tanton Network groups such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA, Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), U.S., Inc, and Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), as it also funds environmental organizations external to the Network that are concerned with conservation and population stabilization.

The Colcom Foundation, based in Pittsburgh, PA, funds the above conglomeration of groups that are all members, again, of the John Tanton Network, i.e. the bulk of the anti-immigrant movement which was founded by and/or subsequently funded by white nationalist John Tanton. According to financial documents obtained by Imagine2050, from 2008-2010 Colcom donated over $25 million dollars to… Read more

The Anti-Immigrant Movement and the National Immigration Debate

Written by Chris Griffin

Over the past two decades the anti-immigrant movement has dominated immigration discourse in America, leading to some of the harshest and most extreme policies and rhetoric in decades.

This became true following the tragic events on September 11, 2001.

Since then and through major anti-immigrant lobbying efforts by groups such as FAIR and CIS – both founded and largely funded by the white nationalist John Tanton – the immigration debate was hijacked and shackled by rhetoric of terrorism and border security.  In the process, undocumented immigrants were socially constructed as an inherent threat to or burden on society.

Empathy, humanity, and reason evaporated quickly.

In fact, according to an Read more