After over 700 were arrested marching across the Brooklyn Bridge, media outlets begrudgingly covered the surging movement – tinging their newscasts and editorials with confused contempt.

Now, with similar protests springing up around the… Read more

In a ruling that now makes Alabama the home of the harshest anti-immigrant laws  in the country, a district judge upheld provisions of H.B. 56. According to a report by Center for American Progress, the following measures are now in effect as a result of the ruling:

• Alabama Schools must check the immigration status of every student and parent and report that information to the state.
• Schools are authorized to report students and parents they believe to be undocumented to the federal government.
• Police officers must ask anyone they stop who they think might be undocumented to prove

… Read more

At the same time the report was leaked, Task Force members began dropping like flies – choosing to resign rather than continue attaching their names to recommendations that identify serious problems with Secure Communities, but not enough serious solutions. The report… Read more

Today, the Center for New Community released an updated map of the anti-immigrant movement in America and its most influential leader, white nationalist John Tanton.

In 2009, the Center released a similar report on the John Tanton Network and the anti-immigrant movement. At the time, few recognized the name John Tanton or knew of his 30-year mission to build a nativist empire of organizations consisting of lobbyists, lawyers, legislators, and “experts” that have permeated the very depths of social and political debate.

What appeared to the public as a variety of voices advocating for severe immigration enforcement was nothing more than a series of front groups, “coalitions,” and spin-offs seeking to overwhelm reasonable… Read more

Millions of American citizens and immigrants are impacted every day by the chaos that comes with our broken system – leaving those with an uncertain status and their partners, children, parents, employers, and friends, with a crushing burden.

People put their lives on hold for years, and spend endless hours navigating a bureaucratic nightmare and untold resources just to get un-stuck. It’s not pretty, it’s not fair, and it just keeps getting worse. As a result, nativist activity has risen to historic levels, racist laws have passed in states… Read more

Pearce became a polarizing and influential figure when he introduced racist law SB 1070 in 2010. When the law was passed, the ensuing firestorm catapulted him into the national spotlight and he became an inspiration for bigoted politicians everywhere. With the support of powerful anti-immigrant groups, Pearce certainly didn’t get there on his own.

All the while, his constituents back in Arizona simmered with discontent. And earlier this year they decided to do something about it.

On January 10, 2011, Citizens for a Better… Read more

Today, the Center for New Community, a national civil rights organization, was joined by university students from around the country and members of Sixth Sun Media for a five-day delegation to Atlanta.

The delegation will meet with individuals and organizations working on the ground to counter hate and anti-immigrant bigotry. A total of eight students and activists are taking part.

The delegation members believe that gaining a first-hand perspective of Georgia post-H.B. 87 will benefit their continuing efforts to counter the anti-immigrant movement, anti-immigrant legislation including copycat versions of SB1070, the greening of bigotry and anti-immigrant frames around the environment, and anti-immigrant arguments around reproductive issues/justice.

In addition to meeting… Read more

Nowhere in its coverage did NPR inform its listeners and readers that Center for Immigration Studies was founded by a white nationalist. NPR also failed to provide any background on Mr. Krikorian’s laundry list of controversial statements – most recently he referred to Muslims as… Read more

There’s no doubt that some folks are advocating against circumcision for the wrong reasons. The people on the same side… Read more

Last week, David North wrote on the CIS website about Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent move to overrule a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals to deport an immigrant who is in a civil union with a U.S. citizen.

North described the various reactions he expected to Holder’s decision and then gave his own opinion:

“supporting marriage rights (such as non-deportation of married aliens) of gays will have only the slightest immediate impact on the burgeoning population of America and none… Read more

Two weeks ago, The Times ran a front-page feature on white nationalist John Tanton and the organizations he created.

Much was made in the first article about Tanton’s involvement with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR); he founded the organization and still sits on its board of directors. After FAIR quietly dropped Tanton from its board last week, The Times felt compelled to write a follow-up.

FAIR’s president Dan Stein released a statement just a few days after the first article appeared, but failed to address the fact… Read more

John Tanton isn’t any ordinary board member; he founded FAIR in 1979, and has served on the board for 32 years. Tanton’s departure comes just 10 days after a front-page article appeared in the New York Times Sunday edition.

According to K.C. McAlpin, a former FAIR staffer and the man who recently took over Tanton’s foundation U.S. Inc., Tanton himself made the decision to leave the board. Bob Dane, a FAIR spokesperson, backed up that claim, telling Imagine 2050 that Tanton’s decision to… Read more

Much was made in the article about Tanton’s involvement with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR); he founded the organization and still sits on its board of directors.

FAIR’s president Dan Stein released a statement just a few days after the article appeared. Stein furiously tried to paint FAIR as “never advocating immigration policies that discriminate for or against anyone based on race, creed, color, religion, gender or sexual orientation.”

At the same time, Stein failed to address the fact that the organization… Read more

A feature article in Sunday’s New York Times establishes that the man behind powerful anti-immigrant organizations such as FAIR, Center for Immigration Studies, and NumbersUSA, is a white nationalist.

The Times article cites such examples as:

He [Tanton] set off a storm of protests two decades ago with a memorandum filled with dark warnings about the “Latin onslaught.” Word soon followed that FAIR was taking money from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation that promoted theories of the genetic superiority of whites.

The article goes on to say that over the years Tanton has increasingly… Read more

This week, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is holding a rally hosting a various extreme anti-immigrant radio hosts. Yet FAIR promotes themselves as a mainstream organization, touting their ability to “shed light on this complex subject on their website.” Below the jump are some of the extreme, violent, offensive and false comments that FAIR’s rally guests have made.

Jeff Katz Katz Has Been Repeatedly Fired For Offensive Comments, Including A “Joke” Encouraging Violence Against Immigrants

Katz was fired from a radio station after he made a “joke” suggesting that drivers who run

… Read more

Luckily, members of Congress got a special delivery this morning from D.C.  residents who want to help them stay cool.

FAIR likes to use heated rhetoric to promote its anti-immigrant agenda. But its troubling history points to an agenda that goes deeper than just immigration issues and taints its political activities.

In 1979 the group was founded by… Read more

Arpaio calls his posse “volunteers.” But others have another name for them: vigilantes. Human rights activist Salvador Reza told the Arizona Republic that the operation “will spend taxpayer dollars to put 30 pilots in the… Read more

Edwards links the Obama Administration’s refusal to continue supporting the Defense of Marriage Act to a forthcoming invasion of gay immigrants who will soon be flooding the nation. He characterizes it as Obama “pushing the envelope recently in the culture wars.”

Edwards’ arguments practically parrot those made previously by CIS executive director Mark Krikorian.

Krikorian has made a series of comments indicating that his xenophobia also manifests as homophobia. It’s almost as if an anti-gay stance has become company policy over at CIS.… Read more

The majority GOP witnesses are Steven Camarota of  Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and Greg Serbon of Indiana Federation for Immigration Reform and Enforcement (IFIRE). Both are anti-immigrant leaders tied to FAIR and white nationalist John Tanton.

It is troubling that Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Elton Gallegly (R-CA) and Steve King (R-IA) – dubbed the “rabid anti-immigration trio of powerful GOP congressmen” by the NY Daily News – are continuing to call witnesses from the same small pool of controversial anti-immigrant… Read more

It is certainly true that the volatile national debate on immigration has been debased, particularly on talk radio and the Internet by insulting commentary and dehumanizing criticism of illegal immigrants. These attacks often stir resentment not only against illegal immigrants, but also against legal immigrants and some native-born citizens of the United States. They have no place in civil society. They poison the environment for debate that is vital in a democracy.

On the surface, this appears to be a sensitive statement, except for one major inconsistency.  The actions and affiliations of Center for Immigration… Read more