Francine Busby is a Democratic candidate running in 2010 for congress in California’s 50th District (including San Diego). In 2006 she lost the same seat in a controversial race against Republican Brian Bilbray. The Republican National Convention put 5 million dollars behind Bilbray’s campaign because of Busby’s growing popularity. Brian Bilbray is the chairman of the anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus and a staunch advocate of John Tanton’s anti-immigrant movement. The local minutemen chapter often praises him on their website.

Last Friday, one of Francine Busby’s supporters hosted a fundraiser in her home for the campaign. Ms. Busby made a brief speech in the host’s backyard, which ended at around 8:45 pm. The noise caught the attention of a neighbor who was so angered by their gathering, that he felt it necessary to shout derogatory comments about the candidate and homosexuals.

Around 9:30 pm a police officer named Marshall Abbott walked into Shari Barman’s home without warning, and asked for the homeowner. The host gave him her name but declined to share her date of birth, and the officer became aggressive towards her.

According to the Barman, “He told me I was under arrest, grabbed my right arm, twisted it behind me and threw me on the ground. Some of the 25 or so people who were still in attendance observed what was happening and started asking the deputy what was going on. My partner, Jane Stratton, asked him to please be careful as I had recently had right shoulder surgery. His response was to knock her to the ground. At this point, some of the guests attempted to come to my aid and to Ms. Stratton’s. Without warning the deputy started pepper spraying everyone, even those who were simply standing in the area.”

A neighbor that attended the gathering said she was taken back by the police officer’s overreaction. She left before the deputy arrived and was shocked to find eight to 10 patrol cars and a helicopter outside.

Ms. Barman believes that she is being charged not because of the volume of her gathering, but because a politically motivated complaint sparked unlawful violence from an officer. She suspects charges were brought only in order to cover up Deputy Abbott’s unprofessional behavior.

The anti-immigrant movement is deeply rooted in the population control movement of the 1960s/70s—a movement that often wavered between its racially-tinged, eugenics edges and full-bore blame on overly-consumptive “Americans” (i.e., whites) for the environmental crisis of that era. Today the movement has resolutely staked its claim on those old, racially-tinged edges in a disingenuous move to lure environmentalists into its fold. By doing so it has completely abandoned assigning any responsibility for the contemporary environmental crisis on a still-wealthy nation that consumes some forty percent of the world’s resources, regardless of immigration levels.

That FAIR and its allies would lay blame for urban sprawl, water shortages, and a host of other problems on immigrants is utterly ludicrous—as if struggling, low-wage immigrant workers have purchased all those high-cost suburban homes on the nation’s relentlessly expanding metro edges, or generated the tons of waste that characterize the consumer society.

Behind this facade of blame lies the crux of the Tanton Network’s real concern: that whites will soon be a minority among minority populations “in their own country.” The extremes of this concern are posted in publications like the “Citizens Informer”—the newspaper of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens. In a recent letter on “Global Warming and White Birthrate Decline,” a reader postulated that “White Americans are committing suicide by not replacing themselves while importing highly fertile aliens whose goal is to improve their standard of living by consuming and polluting.”

Birthrates in developed (predominantly white) nations worldwide are, indeed, continuing to drop dramatically. Concurrently, the number of ageing is rising—by mid-century those over 60 will comprise 22% of the world’s population, double the current rate. This is what FAIR and the anti-immigrant movement doesn’t want to talk about—the fact that a reduced, ageing white population in the U.S. is going to be compelled to share resources and power with a growing, younger population of immigrants of color.

In a nation where the primary population growth is among immigrants, it is clear that FAIR and CIS share a singular goal around their renewed efforts to link environmental degradation to population. Disregarding the environmentally destructive consumption patterns of white America, the environment/population problem is, in their view…immigration. The solution is, in their view…stop it. Were they truthful, their (white nationalist) argument would be much simpler: Keep America Beautiful. Keep America White.

“You look at the labels and you see farmer this, farmer that. It’s really just three or four companies that are controlling the meat. We’ve never had food companies this big and this powerful in our history.”

– Eric Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation.”

Most of the widely publicized undercover work into meat processing plants has been done by animal rights groups. While Americans should certainly be concerned about the way their food is treated, there has been little to no focus on the workers in these plants who are often treated no better than the animals put up for slaughter. Thankfully, the creators of Food, Inc. took the time to explain the devastating effects of NAFTA and how immigrants to our country are cooperatively used up by food corporations and spit back out by ICE agents. It is a sick and twisted relationship our government has with food corporations in order to maximize profit. Scary, smart, and relevant; I’m recommending it to everyone.

But this isn’t just a movie, it’s a campaign. Learn more at www.takepart.com.

But to move this beyond just a few high-profile meetings and turn it into workable solutions, Congress needs to continue to hear from you. I sent a personal email to my representative today:

Dear Representative,

Working as a school administrator three years ago I watched helplessly as the family of one of my students was ripped apart by the immigration system. The young boy’s mother was deported while his father, who was a legal resident, stayed behind in the US to maintain the family’s small business and ensure that he could continue to support his family.

Like a majority of immigrants to this country this young family was hard-working and law-abiding. They were active in the community and their son was a happy, all-American kid. The best option for the family was for him to go with his mother back to her native country. He left behind his home, friends, school, and father at just 5-years-old. It wasn’t just the family that was devastated, it was an entire community who had grown to love this family.

It’s un-American to deport or drive out 12,000,000 undocumented immigrants — and the status quo is unacceptable. So now is the time for you to lead. We deserve comprehensive immigration reform that gets immigrants into the legal system, holds employers accountable, strengthens the rights of all workers, reunites families, and offers solutions that move us forward together.

This week some members of Congress are going to meet with President Obama to discuss reforming our immigration system. I am glad to hear it! The current system is broken and won’t fix itself unless you choose to act. Please do everything you can to see to it that comprehensive immigration reform is addressed this year.

We all need to tell Congress and the White House in our own words why this is so important. We must continue communicating our expectation that they find workable solutions that are consistent with our values and move us forward together.

At a press briefing today, leaders from faith, business, labor, and immigration reform organizations discussed not just the need for reform, but the viability of getting it done in 2009.

Bishop Soto of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Migration warned that delaying immigration reform will undermine our economy and our security. Speaking on behalf of all the US Bishops working on this issue, he urged President Obama and congressional leaders to enact immigration reform.

Tamar Jacoby of ImmigrationWorks USA spoke on behalf employers who have a strong stake in legalizing workers and growing the economy. “There is a need for workers at the top and the bottom of the economy,” Jacoby said. Low-skilled and highly educated immigrants are necessary in the US and we will need a legal way for immigrants to work as our economy recovers.

Mark Lauritsen of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) said members “expect action on immigration reform and they expect action now”. Their membership want to know that they will no longer be criminalized for going to work.

Janet Murguía of National Council of La Raza (NCLR) expects this to be the first in a series of steps that will lead to a legislative debate this Fall. She said voters rejected anti-immigrant candidates this past election cycle, “the Latino community understands the painful consequences of allowing this issue to fester…lives have literally been at stake.”

Frank Sharry of America’s Voice pointed out that Senate majority leader Harry Reid is committed to passing Comprehensive Immigration Reform, and that he should be called upon to make this a priority on the legislative calendar. Will Republicans stand up to cooperate on this? That remains to be seen. But with changing demographics the Latino vote is increasingly vital to Republican officials. Tamar Jacoby said, “Republicans are seeing the writing on the wall.”

Lauritsen encouraged enacting real policies that positively impact hard-working immigrants, “once they come in, let’s let them be full participants in our society…that’s what makes this country great.”

Indeed it is. Write to your Representative today and tell them why you support reform.

Leah Durant, PFIR executive director, quoted herself in PFIR’s press release saying:

“The results of this poll demonstrate what many on the political left have known for some time. Immigration is not a partisan issue. There are many progressives and liberals that are concerned about the unintended consequences that large scale immigration has on the environment, economy, and other issues that many liberals are concerned about,”

I couldn’t agree more Leah! This certainly is not a partisan issue. So why did PFIR’s parent group, FAIR, build the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC), that is overwhelmingly Republican? Why does HIRC support immigration policies that do not in any way align with liberal or progressive politics? Congratulations on finding out that progressives are concerned about immigration, Leah! You could have saved yourself a bit of money by just calling me up. You see, over here at Imagine 2050 we are actually progressive. And therefore not associated with white nationalism. You are. Do you think progressives will still want to talk to you once they find out your not-so-progressive past?

Let’s find out. Here is the real deal on Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR):

• John Tanton’s colleague Roy Beck (and former consultant and editor of Tanton’s quarterly journal, The Social Contract Press) helped staff PFIR by circulating an employment letter for PFIR’s executive director in June 2008.

FAIR, Eugenics, & John Tanton:

“I have been meeting with Dr. Robert Klerk Graham, founder of the foundation of germinal choice…we have been having discussions about trying to revitalize the eugenics theme, though perhaps not under that name”

*Source http://www.newcomm.org/content/view/59/88/1/8/

The three suspects belong to the Minutemen American Defense (MAD), a vigilante anti-immigrant group. Shawna Forde is the leader, and has been tied to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. FAIR is frantically attempting to distance themselves from this horrible act of violence, which is proving a difficult task considering Shawna Forde was named as a representative of FAIR in 2006.

Nativist groups appear unrepentant in the aftermath of a tragedy they helped create. Jim Gilchrist’s group, Minuteman Project (which supported Forde), even had the nerve to post this article on father’s day.

This is not just insensitive, it’s a clear signal that these extremist groups will not stop inciting hatred and violence. Not until reasonable Americans demand it.

Presente.org has started a campaign to renounce this hateful rhetoric. They wrote to their members and asked them to demand that Congress renounce FAIR, the Minutemen, and other anti-immigrant hate groups. Presente points out the scary relationship between anti-immigrant groups and politicians who spread their hateful messages:

FAIR and the Minutemen groups are regularly quoted in the mainstream media—FAIR more than 500 times in 2008—giving them a megaphone to broadcast their hateful beliefs and rhetoric: like FAIR executive director Dan Stein’s claim that “illegal aliens are more prone to criminal activity than the rest of the population,” or Minutemen co-founder Jim Gilchrist’s assertion that it is “okay to say ‘rapist,’ ‘robber’ and ‘murderer’” when describing “illegal aliens.”

As vile as their rhetoric is, even more disturbing is when our elected representatives applaud their efforts and parrot their messages. Take Ranking Republican Congressman on the House Immigration Sub-Committee, Rep. Steve King, a long-time friend of extremist groups, who wrote that a day without immigrants in America would mean “the lives of 12 U.S. citizens would be saved who otherwise die a violent death at the hands of murderous illegal aliens each day.” Those debunked claims were then repeated hundreds of times by FAIR and others, creating an echo chamber of racism and hate.

Or take Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has likened immigrants to terrorists and child molesters, as well as taking money from a group with white-supremacist ties.

Please add you voice to this important campaign, before more innocent children and fathers lose their lives to hate.

It’s been a week since anti-immigrant activist Shawna Forde was charged with the murder of nine-year old Brisenia Flores in Arizona. In the days following, reports surfaced that Shawna Forde may have been a representative for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Since then, FAIR’s spin machine has been working overtime to deny any connection to Forde or white supremacy.

It appears that defending the organization from charges that it associates with political extremists will be a difficult task with individuals like Collins stepping forward. In an essay published on the VDARE website, Collins argues that it is unfair to draw connections between anti-immigration organizations like FAIR and the racist motivations of accused murderer, Shawna Forde. Doing so, claims Collins, will stop real dialogue on issues such as “immigration” and “racial hatred” from emerging. Forde’s extremism, Collins assures us, doesn’t represent “mainstream” organizations such as FAIR.

What is both ironic and telling about this call to “judge fairly” is that Collins had it published on a well known white nationalist’s website. VDARE, published by the Center for American Unity, well known for its racist and anti-Semitic writings, is named after Virginia Dare who is allegedly the first white child to be born in North America.

That Collins would choose to write his call for “reason” from a white nationalist website says much about his and FAIR’s definition of “mainstream”. While ironic that Collins chose to publish on VDARE, it is not surprising. Collins has been a regular contributor since 2005. He has also published in the white nationalist Social Contract Press whose editor, Wayne Lutton, is also a member of the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.

Collins also publishes writings in The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies headed by far right organizer Roger Pearson. Pearson was active with Noontide Press the neo-Nazi organization where D.C. Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn worked.

FAIR’s alleged “30-year record of responsible advocacy” is nothing more than a record far outside the realm of mainstream America. That individuals like Collins make up the leadership of this organization says much about FAIR’s comfort with white nationalism. That Collins is allowed to publicly defend FAIR says much about its current desperation.

Over the last several days, writers across the blogosphere have been reporting that Shawna Forde, one of the murderers of nine year-old Brisenia Flores, was named as a representative of FAIR in 2006. Today FAIR finally released its own response to the charges. Instead of taking organizational responsibility for its role in creating the political climate that feeds anti-Latino hysteria, FAIR, in an Orwellian manner, uses its press release as an opportunity to attack the well respected civil rights organization the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

At no point does FAIR take the public opportunity to rebuke the bigotry and racist conspiracies of “Reconquista” that drove Forde and her two cohorts to engage in their politically motivated murder. FAIR seems almost surprised that anyone should think that Forde might actually have represented the organization. Take a look at some of their other present and former representatives.

Was FAIR Field Representative Rosanna Pulido suppose to be speaking on its behalf when she made the following anti-Catholic statements recorded on Chicago Public Radio (Starts at 43 minutes in)? I wonder how Western Regional Coordinator Rick Oltman made a good representative for the organization even though he was removed from his Marin County Republican Committee post for publicly agreeing with the beating of undocumented immigrants in Southern California.

FAIR didn’t seem to think that Oltman was a bad representative when the hate group the Council of Conservative Citizens named Oltman as a member of its organization. FAIR also didn’t seem too upset when they hired notorious anti-immigrant activist Joe Turner, who had tolerated neo-Nazis at previous anti-immigrant events he organized.

FAIR also doesn’t seem very upset about its current board member and founder. John Tanton, who has associations with white supremacists, has made several revealing statements over the years such as:

1. “Hitler’s reign in Nazi Germany did little to advance the discussion of eugenics among sensitive persons.” - The Case for Passive Eugenics

2. “These have generally been pushed by Jewish interests who are offended by those who have challenged the received version of the Holocaust.” - March 14, 1995

3. “It seems that the main market is in the orient – very interesting, considering that in general, male Orientals are less well equipped than those of some other groups.” - January 30, 1995

With this is mind it’s not surprising at all that we as the public might find it believable that Forde was a representative of FAIR. It makes perfect sense. It’s not the fault of the public; that’s the fault of FAIR.

Instead of spending its time attacking respected organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center, FAIR should take responsibility for the bigotry that they’ve helped to sow in the media and in our communities.

It’s time for FAIR to clean up its own mess.

“The entire policy is designed to keep Europe white,” holds one outspoken German church leader. “It allows the EU countries to blame the EU and the EU to blame its members” for the harshness of the sweeping, criminalizing crackdowns on migrants carried out by Frontex, the Warsaw-based “specialized and independent body tasked to coordinate the operational cooperation between Member States in the field of border security.”

“Frontex—it sounds like some kind of chemical,” the same church leader stated. And as if Frontex alone were not sufficient, each member nation maintains security of its own borders, while local law enforcement watches over the neighborhood. Security on top of security. Fortress Europe. Keep Europe white.

All this has a familiar ring, of course. In plain-speak U.S. English, Frontex sounds like ICE on steroids.

Listen long enough to Europeans engaged with im/migrant communities across the EU and you realize you just had the same conversation in Fortress America. Look at the composition of the EU Parliament and the outcome of its recent elections and you realize that the anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC) has a big, burly, bully brother across the Atlantic. Hear how European im/migrants are criminalized, arrested, beaten, discriminated against, and sometimes left to die and you realize that you just read a similar story about Arizona and Arpaio. One can only begin to imagine the intricate links, cross-trainings, policy and regulatory initiatives, and even harsher enforcement methods being cooperatively developed and/or carried out by the two northern Fortresses, to say nothing of the links between their white nationalists that give rise to those enforcement policies and “protections” in the 27 + 1.

The growing, forced migration of peoples is a global phenomenon that may be temporarily slowed by economic crisis, lost opportunity, or Fortress strategies and enforcement, but it will not stop. The people will keep coming. The Fortresses need their low-wage labor, just not “too many” of “them” to threaten “western culture,” as the white nationalists say. But the people will keep coming. They will definitely keep coming.

There are innumerable stories in history, myth, and legend of walls and fortresses thought by principalities and powers to be impenetrable, only to be broken open and torn down by the indomitable spirit of peoples seeking freedom, life, survival itself. So it will be with Fortress Europe and Fortress America. No Frontex, ICE, or white nationalist organization can or will keep them out. It is futile and foolish to think otherwise. The walls will indeed come tumbling down…

“But ‘whatever our past may have been’ was the same as what we are now. NumbersUSA has never had connections with white supremacists — not in the past, not in the present, not in the future.”

So go the words of Roy Beck the executive director of the anti-immigrant organization NumbersUSA responding to a blog I wrote on June 8th entitled “NumbersUSA Addicted to Bigotry.” Roy wrote his response as part of a larger piece available at the NumbersUSA website.

I wonder if Beck would be willing to explain the photo below:

The three images were taken from the Winter 1997/98 Citizens Informer the publication of the white nationalists Council of Conservative Citizens (The Council). The top image is Roy “has never had connections with white supremacists” Beck presenting his Immigration by the Numbers at the Council’s National Conference in November of 1997.

For Shawna Forde (41), Jason Bush (34), and Albert Gaxiola (42) Brisenia was not just a young child with her whole life ahead of her, instead she and her family were forced against their will into a world where they became part of an alleged “foreign army” whose lives held no worth.

For nearly a decade we Americans have allowed the anti-immigrant movement to live in their own fantasy world and we allowed it to happen. We turned a blind eye when they played G.I. Joe in the dessert. We rolled our eyes and grab the remote when CNN allowed Lou Dobbs to spew out xenophobia nightly in order to sell a few commercials. We scratch our heads and turn the page when we learn that another national anti-immigrant leader was allowed to give official testimony in front of Congress.

While the minutemen are working overtime to distance themselves from this horrible crime, it appears that one of the murderers of Brisenia, Shawna Forde, was a representative of the controversial anti-immigrant organization the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Los Angeles based worker compensation and immigrant rights activist Tony Herrera surfaced a video available on YouTube.

The video taken in Yakima, Washington on November 14, 2006 shows Shawna Forde being introduced as a representative of FAIR. Throughout the video FAIR is flashed on the screen along with Fordes other organization the Minutemen American Defense (MAD).

Forde would not be the first person associated to FAIR with suspect behavior. During a town hall meeting in Tennessee that took place on April 27, 2006 FAIR Midwest Coordinator Susan Tully chuckled at the idea of Nashville radio talk show host Phil Valentine who advised border patrol agents to shoot undocumented immigrants. FAIR staffer Rosanna Pulido is well-known for both her anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim statements.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform has a documented history of working with individuals with ties to political extremists. Current board member and founder John Tanton has a history of associating with individuals involved in the white supremacists movement, former Western Regional Coordinator Rick Oltman was listed as a member of the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens while employed by FAIR.

It’s time for those associated with John Tanton and FAIR to tell the truth. More importantly it’s time for the American public to start demanding that the media and political leaders stop treating the contemporary anti-immigrant movement as if they are part of the mainstream.

The Brisenia Flores’ of the world deserve better.

In a response to the tragedy today at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum where 88-year-old white supremacist James von Brunn allegedly opened fire killing a security guard before being severely wounded himself, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon called on Sheriff Joe Arpaio to distance himself from his neo-Nazi and racist supporters.

“I’m calling upon the sheriff of Maricopa County to denounce the neo-Nazis and the Nazis today,” said Gordon during a press conference this afternoon.”Not that I believe that the sheriff is a Nazi or a neo-Nazi. Let me be very clear, he has given the sense of recognition to the neo-Nazis and Nazis that he’s associated with.”

In a statement later released by Gordon’s office, Gordon cited several incidents where Sheriff Arpaio has interacted with extremist nativists, neo-Nazis, and groups that accept neo-Nazis into their ranks. Specifically, the Mayor cited reports that have appeared in this blog and in my recent cover story, Ja, Joe!, which detailed the various links between Arpaio and extremist groups such as United for a Sovereign America, as well as his recent photo op with former National Socialist Movement member Thomas Coletto, alias, “Vito Lombardi.”

In other Arpaio news, a former school superintendent is suing Sheriff Joe and other local politicians after he sent a SWAT team to search her house (including 3 helicopters) and charged her with 25 criminal counts. This was all in an effort to intimidate her after she complained about school funding. Yikes.

The superintendent claims “The Sheriff and his MCSO have earned a reputation for using criminal investigations to intimidate political opposition.” Former Maricopa County Superintendent of Schools Sandra Dowling sued the Board of Supervisors and Arpaio over the January 2006 search warrant executed on her home by a SWAT team and the succeeding indictment. She claims they tipped off the media ahead of time so they could provide live coverage of the searches.

Arpaio is also being sued by a Muslim jail officer who claims that he was fired by the Sheriff’s office because of religious discrimination. The man was initially told he could keep his full-length beard, but once Joe got a look at him, he was told to shave his beard or lose his job. Sounds like Joe and the Sheriff’s office are spending a lot of time defending themselves these days. Wonder who is footing the legal bills?

Nathan Deal

In a cynical move to build support for his campaign for the governorship of Georgia, U.S. Representative Nathan Deal has rekindled racist fervor to gut birthright citizenship and the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. By doing so he has once again –boldly and baldly—positioned himself at the intersection of racism and immigration.

HR1868, the “Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009,” would permit citizenship status to children birthed in the U.S. only if at least one parent is a citizen or legal permanent resident. Now co-sponsored by 73 Members of the U.S. House of Representatives—53 of whom are members of the FAIR-fueled anti-immigrant House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC)—the bill rekindles the fervor for dismantling a cornerstone of rights won by African Americans in the post-Civil War era.

Ratified in 1868, the 14th Amendment abolished the “Black Codes” that the former slave states had enacted to prevent newly freed African Americans the equal rights granted through citizenship, and overturned the drastic rulings set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the infamous Dred Scott case of 1857. In that case, the Court set forth a legal framework for institutional racism in America when it declared that African Americans were not citizens and that they were “so inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

The chances of moving HR1868 are slim, which even Representative Deal admits. Yet he continues to press it in his campaign and in the Congress, stirring the old embers of racism in a state—and a nation—still seeking to overcome its long, sordid legacy of discrimination against African Americans, and reminding voters of the old battles of white supremacy. A bid to cut a similar path is currently underway via The “California Taxpayer Protection Act,” a 2010 ballot initiative to put an end to “birth tourism” of “illegal aliens” in the U.S.

Such contemporary, immigrant-focused efforts to gut the 14th Amendment are usually looked upon as political grandstanding, with virtually no possibility of gaining traction in law or in the public arena. The warnings of history, however, ought to sober such an assessment.

In spite of the protections afforded African Americans by the Amendment, Jim Crow reigned for decades and the deadly forces of discrimination ravaged Black communities nationwide. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1883 and the National Origins Act of 1924 were enacted to keep immigration as white as possible. The forced expulsion of tens of thousands of Mexicans—including many who were U.S. citizens—marked another era of economic crisis and rampant unemployment. The WWII internment of Japanese-Americans unmasked the nation’s paranoia over “foreigners” in its midst. And no one ever thought that Klansman and avowed white supremacist David Duke would ever come as close as he did to pulling off a Louisiana victory in the U.S. Senate race of 1990.

In 2007 Duke urged his followers to support Nathan Deal’s Birthright Citizenship Act, reissuing on his web site the Numbers USA posting on the Act. That link in and of itself is telling: racists love to gather at the intersection where they can undercut the rights of Black Americans and immigrants at the same time, and the 14th Amendment “battle” gives them common cause and common cover to do so.

Take the case of Fred Elbel, who runs a website dedicated to explain “the original intent” of the 14th Amendment and its current “misinterpretation,” that is, the error of its ways in permitting immigrants birthright citizenship. Another Elbel call to “revisit” the Amendment ran in the Spring 2007 issue of John Tanton’s Social Contract Press. Elbel is on the Board of Advisors and serves as webmaster for D.A. King’s anti-immigrant “Dustin Inman Society” based in—Georgia; in 2007 King accepted over $5,000 from Tanton’s US Inc.

It was in the heat of the (unsuccessful) 2004 effort by anti-immigrant activists to take over the Board of the Sierra Club, however, that Fred Elbel revealed himself—and likely mirrored his cohorts in the 14th Amendment battle—when he declared in an email response to criticism of his role in that campaign:

“Damned right. I hate ‘em all - negroes, wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, krauts, ruskies, ethopians, pakis, hunkies, pollocks and marxists; there are way too many of them. I’m all for trout, elephants, bacteria, whales, wolves, birds, parrot fish, deciduous foliage and mollusks. Time to rebalance the planet, bleeding heart liberals be damned.”

Nathan Deal stands in bad company. The battle to gut the 14th Amendment is a sleeper issue of our day, looming large at the intersection of racism and immigration. The warning signs are posted, and ought not be ignored.

[Walt] Staton, 27, a volunteer with No More Deaths, was cited by the Border Patrol for leaving water containers in the park south of Tucson. Staton, who faces up to a year in prison for the charges, told the Arizona Daily Star he will continue to place water in the desert. “We’re not asking permission from the United States to save people’s lives. We never have, because we know they’d say no,” Staton told the Tucson publication.

After a two day trial Staton”s attorney, William Walker, pointed out a glaring irony to this whole process, “What really surprised me, though, was . . . this trial must have cost the government more than $50,000 . . . they say there aren’t enough agents on the border, that they can’t stop terrorists from coming into the country . . . and then they spend all of this time and money prosecuting a humanitarian who is putting out water to save lives.”

This isn’t about littering. It’s about using death as border enforcement. If the US government put as much energy into repairing trade agreements with Mexico as they do into chasing down humanitarian aid workers, there wouldn’t be so many desperate people trying to cross the desert. Inhumane enforcement only forces migrants to more dangerous situations.

This brings me to the second water-related atrocity occurring in the United States. The United Farm Workers recently sent out a call for support of blueberry workers in California. There was widespread illness and death last summer when farmworkers were not allowed access to water and shade while working in scorching heat. This year there is possibly a more egregious crime being committed against these workers. They are provided water, but if they take the time to drink it they are fired.

Rigoberto Ramirez, a Blueberry worker quoted by the UFW said,

“Supposedly we have the water available, we have the shade available, we have bathrooms available but dare not use them for fear of being fired. It was as if we had none at all.”

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.

Farmworkers certainly can’t wait. Last year a pregnant teenager, María Isabel Vásquez Jiménez, died after working in a California vineyard in blistering heat without access to water or shade. Her’s is just one of many deaths due to inadequate protections for undocumented workers. How many more farmworkers will die in the fields before our system is reformed?

Janet Murguia of NCLR said, “We need to see the change that was promised,”

Immigrants serving in the military can’t wait. Sen. Bob Menendez said, “Their contributions to America are undeniable,” He spoke of the immigrants serving in the US armed services, the immigrants who have died in Iraq, never having the opportunity to become citizens. The immigrants who pick the food we put on our tables every day, care for our parents and grandparents when they can no longer care for themselves. They fill the jobs in hotels and meat-packing plants that keep our economy from collapse. They deserve the opportunity to work legally.

America’s youth can’t wait. Young immigrants and refugees from Mexico, Korea, Laos, and Central America told of their struggles for education, citizenship, and dignity. Their lives are deeply impacted by a broken immigration system.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) said 80,000 faxes were sent to Congress in the last 24 hours, and freshman representatives from swing districts are willing to put their seats on the line for comprehensive immigration reform. Let’s hope many more members of congress are willing to go out on a limb for the millions of people suffering in limbo.

As the event came to a close, attendees left with a prayer - ready to fill the halls of congress to urge their representatives to support workable immigration reform.

Ben Jealous, President, NAACP

This morning I found myself at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. I was there to observe the public launch of a new campaign Reform Immigration for America. The campaign unites labor, faith, civil rights, pro-immigrant, business and law enforcement to help President Obama make good on his promise to pass immigration reform in 2009. The press conference is one of over 40 events taking place throughout the United States this week.

As I stood amongst the crowd of over 100 media and supporters one thing became crystal clear. This is our historic opportunity, our historic moment, our time to stand together as Americans to unite families, secure worker’s rights, and strengthen our nation. It is no longer good enough to mouth simple platitudes; we must now stand up and more importantly step forward.

Of course the naysayers will tell us that “it is too soon” or that “it is better to wait.” But how can we wait when our friends and families leave for work never to return home? Should we continue to wait while our neighbors lose fingers, arms, and lives on industry floors because there is no law that can really protect them? What about the children amongst us. Shall we tell them to be patient and simply “wait” to be reunited with their parents?

As National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) President and CEO Ben Jealous succinctly put it “It is no longer good enough to talk about ‘family values’ while allowing a broken immigration system to tear those very families apart.” Ben Jealous is right. Simply put immigration reform will be what we make of it.

A source close to the White House with whom I spoke felt the energy as well, saying, “If you want to know what’s really going to happen on immigration watch the political bandwidth of health care. If health care moves it is a clear signal that the possibility of immigration reform has arrived.”

If health care is our signal then we must prepare for our moment. Not tomorrow but today. This morning at the National Press Club I stood among those who are no longer waiting. We should join their commitment for immigration reform today. For America, failure is not an option.

Their message? We need a common-sense solution to our broken immigration system in 2009. At a press conference this morning Benjamin Jealous of the NAACP, Janet Murguia of NCLR, and Ali Noorani of National Immigration Forum were just a few of the national leaders on hand to launch a push for immigration reform. They aren’t alone. Hundreds of organizations from around the nation are joining with them this week in Washington DC for three days of activities to demonstrate their support.

Over 700 representatives from these organizations have traveled far and wide to talk to members of congress and encourage their local constituents to do the same with faxes, text messages and email.

In a statement released today Ali Noorani said, “The broken immigration system is a symbol of how Washington has been avoiding tough problems for too long. It’s time for leaders to do what a majority of Americans want done - fix our immigration system.”

He’s right. 60% of Americans support fixing the immigration system. It has become increasingly clear that deporting 12 million living, breathing, integral members of our American communities is not only unrealistic, but detrimental to America’s economy and moral fiber. Americans historically stand by immigrants in their quest for work and civil advancement. They are weary of the growing underclass flourishing under our immigration system and what it means for America as a world leader. Government agencies are straining under the weight of a system that leaves people in limbo for years awaiting documentation. We cannot afford to let this historic opportunity pass us by. Now is the time for reform.

“It’s our collective challenge and responsibility to develop and advocate for common-sense immigration reform,” said John Podesta, President and CEO of Center for American Progress.

The calls for change are getting louder, and more urgent. Americans from small town meat-packing communities to vibrant urban neighborhoods know this already. Let’s make sure Congress and President Obama get the message too.

Go to Reform Immigration FOR America and voice your support.

They drive to the trailer. The Trooper follows the driver inside. Others are there. The passport is found and handed over. The Trooper asks the others for their papers. Tells them he has to take the documents in and check them with Immigration. He leaves. The people flee. Call the church for help. Call others for help. They don’t return to the trailer. They flee. They leave everything behind. They flee.

Blue lights flashing, the Officers pull up beside the teenager walking home with his friends. Identification. Let’s see it. It’s at home. Pats him down. Get in the car. Let’s go see.

They drive to the house. The Officers follow to the porch. Others are there, wary and weary of the familiar scene. Heated words are exchanged. Identification is shown. The Officers ask others for identification and leave. The people are angry, livid. Again. Once again.

It happens every day. Every day. In rural America. In urban America.

What is it that compels this nation to treat immigrants and African Americans as enemy, as suspect, as people to be “pulled over,” questioned, intruded upon, identified, and challenged?

What is it that makes a nation that claims to be a “beacon of freedom” instill pervasive fear in communities where hard-working people struggle every day to survive, to feed their families?

What is it that keeps the Orwellian Department of Homeland Security, state, and local law enforcement so intent on enforcement of “laws” and abridgement of rights and basic human dignity?

Why is it that between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July—the twin pillars of America’s celebration of itself, its professed grandeur of freedom—we cannot see ourselves mirrored in the illusion of freedom that is not and will not be granted to all. The American Dream is the American Nightmare.

You know what it is. You know why it is.

The people flee. The people fear. The people struggle for the wholeness of life in the face of oppression in the guise of liberty.

It must be stopped. It must be stopped.

If confirmed, Sonia will be only the third woman to ever sit on our nation’s highest court. And the first woman of color. One more thing, Sonia knows what it is like to be poor.

Sonia said something indicating that she might be a better judge because of these things - because she is a women, a child of immigrants, a minority, a person of moderate means she may be a better choice for our high court than just another white man.

This country is run by men. Sonia Sotomayor challenged the logic of that and these same men came to blow her house down. Rep. Tom Tancredo led the charge. He and other men called her racist. But since we are throwing around crazy accusations why don’t we take a closer look at Tommy boy.

Tancredo is explicitly tied to the anti-immigrant movement. He founded the House Immigration Reform Caucus (HIRC) which holds 110 (102 Republican) members  of the House of Representatives. The HIRC’s current chairman, Brian Bilbray, is a former staff member for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Yep, the same FAIR that has those pesky ties to white nationalism.

HIRC members have sponsored the most draconian anti-immigrant legislation considered by Congress, helping to legitimize vigilante groups like the Minutemen. And while we call this movement anti-immigrant, it is also not too fond of women. There is strong evidence of anti-immigrant sentiment translating to increased oppression of women. This is not just a few women being roughed up in detention facilities. This is women being raped by detention guards, being forced to perform sexual favors in exchange for green cards, women who are too afraid to report crimes for fear of deportation, this is video games depicting immigrant women as “breeders”.

Are these women not worth fighting for because of their immigration status? Is Sonia not to be defended because she doesn’t look the way our heroes did 100 or 40 years ago?

We have entered a new era of oppression against women. The racist, sexist attacks against Sonia are merely another sign of this. If confirmed, Sonia will be a valuable ally in our fight for equality, a beacon of opportunity for our daughters and granddaughters.

Sonia Sotomayor is a foothold for all women into our justice system, one we can’t afford to lose.