ProEnglish Advisory Board Member Compares Undocumented Immigration to Rape
Eddie Garcia moved to the United States as a child years ago and has since become a naturalized citizen. Now that Eddie is all grown up, he has a lot to say about immigration and America.
He loves to tell anyone who will listen that he and his parents came to America as legal immigrants. He also loves to promote the English language and bash undocumented immigrants. Eddie lives in Tennessee and has been very involved with trying to get English-only legislation passed in the state, most notably pushing legislation that would make English the only language available for people who take a drivers license test. In March of this year, Garcia testified in favor of the English-only bill.
Garcia is also an advisory board member of ProEnglish, a group formed by white nationalist John Tanton who still sits on the group’s board for directors. Tanton is the father of the modern day anti-immigrant movement. He has warned of a “Latin onslaught” and has also stated, “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Read more
The Green War on Immigrants
Bigotry. That isn’t the first word that comes to mind when one thinks about environmentalism, but green bigotry is real and growing. A web of individuals, groups and funders who identify themselves as environmentalists are dividing the environmental movement and moving it away from solutions that are inclusive of diverse communities.
The good news is we can take a stand against the greening of hate. Read more
Faux Environmental Group Hosts Discussion on Immigration
Anti-immigrant group Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is hosting an event today, August 25 called, ‘Where have all the orange trees gone? A discussion on Population, Biodiversity and Immigration,’ that will feature special guest Michael Tobias. According to CAPS’ newsletter, American Bigfoot, Dr. Tobias is also the newest addition to its advisory board.
This may sound like a good occasion to get versed on the immigration issue, but it’s quite the opposite.
CAPS is listed as a state contact on Federation for American Immigration Reform’s (FAIR) website, where it is misleadingly described as “an environmental activist organization that views immigration control as a key element of population stabilization.” Read more
FAIR State Contact Promotes Outlandish Conspiracy Theories
The hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) lists many anti-immigrant state groups on its website and encourages its members to join these organizations. One such organization is Secure Arkansas, an anti-immigrant organization that has recently caused a stir due to an email sent out to the group’s supporters.
The email was regarding an upcoming election in Saline County involving a tax increase for a proposed $55 million fair complex. Secure Arkansas is vehemently opposed to the project, and in the email it lists a bizarre conspiracy theory as one of the reasons why.
It states, “the Saline County Fairplex is part of an agenda that is bigger than it looks and could threaten personal freedoms and destroy our way of life.”
The email then links the building of the complex to a UN climate change program, and claims that the government is going to allow UN troops on US soil. Read more
Illinois Groups Ask GOP and Tea Party to Say No to Hate
By Brian Schultz
No one really knows what’s going on with the Tea Party, but whether or not you buy into its rather complex political message, you have to admit that they’ve drawn a lot of attention.
After the Tax Day demonstrations in April, it’s become clear that the Tea Party can both garner impressive numbers, as well as tap a nationalist sentiment that inches them farther and farther to the right. And though they certainly have a right to hold these views, who they’ve begun to keep in their company should begin to raise protest from both ends of the political spectrum—namely, Chicago’s own Rosanna Pulido, slated to speak at their Tri-Count-Teas Rally this Saturday. This was the premise for a call to action spearheaded by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights on Thursday. The action asks political leaders to pledge a hate-free campaign, and to cut ties to Rosanna Pulido and FAIR.
Perhaps Brian Gladstein of the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs best summarized the rationale of the multi-organizational effort: “When a politician participates in an event knowing that they are sharing the stage with a person as Rosanna Pulido, like it or not, they are endorsing and accepting her hate and her racist speech.” Read more
Anti-Immigrant Group Accuses Obama Administration of Funding Terrorists
Yesterday morning, the president of Texans for Immigration Reform (TFIR), Louise Whiteford, sent out the organization’s August newsletter along with a special message to its members. In the long-winded message, Whiteford touched on many subjects that the anti-immigrant movement likes to discuss including SB1070 in Arizona.
A more disturbing issue that Whiteford brought up is her opinions on Muslims. First she stated that, “Sharia law and a republic cannot exist together. Every Muslim is by their faith bound to support a theocracy.”
She follows this first claim with another, stating, “Obama is bringing in Hamas refugees. We not only provide funding for Hamas but we then make them refugees.” Read more
Ingraham & FAIR Make Strange Bedfellows
The Federation for American Immigration Reform is featuring conservative radio host Laura Ingraham in its new campaign to support the recently enforced anti-immigrant law SB 1070 in Arizona.
On a website called borderbands.com, dedicated to the sale of wristbands to fund anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), is a prominent photo of Laura Ingraham showing off her “border band.” The border bands campaign may have a separate 
website from FAIR, but don’t let that fool you. As this video featuring FAIR president Dan Stein clearly illustrates, FAIR is driving the fundraising campaign.
At first glance the Ingraham connection may not seem so far-fetched. But it’s an odd endorsement considering FAIR founder John Tanton’s sketchy advocacy of population control and eugenics. John Tanton founded or helped to fund over a dozen organizations commonly referred to as the Tanton Network, and he did it in part with the help of $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation that supports racial eugenics. Read more
After the Gavel – Anti-Immigrant Groups Respond to SB 1070 Ruling
The wrestling match between the Department of Justice and the State of Arizona ended with a bang – literally – on July 28 when Judge Susan Bolton gave her ruling over the controversial SB 1070 law, merely hours before it was supposed to go into effect.
The law, nicknamed ‘papers, please’, has caused quite a stir since it passed on the state level a few months ago because it called for racial profiling and the mistreatment of immigrants. This is not a very surprising fact considering that the anti-immigrant organization FAIR [Federation for American Immigration Reform] crafted SB1070 through its legal arm IRLI [Immigration Reform Law Institute]. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Hidden Cameras & Neo-Nazi Patrols
The anti-immigrant group Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) released its “hidden camera” documentary film this past July. A ten minute video titled, “Hidden Cameras on the Arizona Border 2: Drugs, Guns and 850 Illegal Aliens,” is the second “hidden camera” video from CIS in the past two years. CIS states that this film “focuses primarily on the environmental destruction caused by illegal activity on federal lands, highlighting in more detail waste and threat to wild animal life.”
This is not the first time CIS has attempted to reach out to environmentalists. Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) was founded in 1985 as a project directly under the control of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). CIS is part of a web of controversial anti-immigrant organizations orchestrated by John Tanton, who founded FAIR.
Groups like CIS, that use ungrounded arguments about ecological degradation for their anti-immigrant agenda, are now coming under harsh criticism from environmentalists. Read more
FAIR’s Stein Unmasks: 14th Amendment Should Not Be Allowed to “enslave our thinking”
Dan Stein, FAIR
If you consider yourself committed to civil, immigrant, and human rights and have ignored the white nationalist agenda of the organized, anti-immigrant movement, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) president Dan Stein’s recent assertion on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution ought to get your attention.
In a Wall Street Journal article on the mounting political attack against birthright citizenship, Stein stated, “”We should not allow language from 1868 to enslave our thinking…in the 21st century.”
“Enslave” our thinking? “Enslave?” Stein would speak of one of the most important Amendments to the Constitution—guaranteeing citizenship to African Americans from 1868 onward—as “enslaving” our thinking? His choice of words is utterly mind-boggling, and scathingly revealing. Stein has unmasked, and what we see once again is the true face of the white nationalist agenda of FAIR, The Tanton Network, and all their small-minded allies “who want their (white) country back” from immigrants, African Americans, and other peoples of color. Read more
14th Amendment In Peril, Arizona Nativists Leading Assault
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees that anyone born in the United States is granted US citizenship and all of the rights that citizenship entails. The amendment has been in place since 1868, almost 150 years. Today in 2010, a fresh assault on the 14th amendment has begun. Not surprisingly, the assault has come from nativist groups and individuals, many of whom have ties to white nationalist organizations.
Many of the people and organizations trying to reverse the 14th amendment argue that undocumented immigrants come here for the sole purpose of having children. They have coined the derogatory term “anchor babies.” They are also not afraid to use language that degrades women when they speak about immigrants coming here just to have children. Lindsay Graham, a republican Senator from South Carolina recently stated the following in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, “People come here to have babies. They come here to drop a child.” Read more
Bigots in Suits – Anti-immigrant Lawyer Running For Office
Mike Hethmon at a Social Contract event
Yesterday was a day of discoveries. I discovered that my hair was an inch longer than the last time I checked, I discovered that one of my best friends decided to ditch her first name and go with her middle name instead. And I discovered that the good people of Maryland District 27A are about to get a good dose of bigotry when Mike Hethmon runs for district delegate.
Mike Hethmon is the General Counsel for the Immigration Reform Law Institute [IRLI], the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. FAIR was founded by white nationalist John Tanton, and received funds from the Pioneer Fund, a foundation which furthers research for racial eugenics. Racial eugenics was very influential during the early twentieth century – used to justify the atrocities of Nazi Germany and slavery in the United States, but was rejected by the American public and legitimate scientific communities after WWII.
Maryland District 27A residents should know that Mike Hethmon has worked with John Tanton for close to nine years now. He attended and spoke at a Writers Workshop for The Social Contract, a white nationalist journal published by Tanton. Read more
Community Members Protest Weeden Foundation in New York
Community members in the Bronx are fed up with anti-immigrant bigotry. And today they are exposing a powerful New York foundation for funding the anti-immigrant movement.
The Weeden Foundation was confronted by over 100 community members in front of its Manhattan headquarters in a protest organized by the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) and Sistas and Brothas United (SBU). According to the group’s press statement, members “protest the Weeden Foundation’s funding groups that scapegoat immigrants for ecological problems. Weeden has a history of attempting to inject 
anti-immigrant agendas into the environmental movement, and also supporting anti-immigrant hate groups…As representatives of diverse immigrant communities, Northwest Bronx community members instead call for an immigration reform that provides all immigrants with full civil rights and a humane pathway to legalization, and an end to racial profiling, raids, mass detentions, deportations, and government programs that criminalize immigrants.”
The Weeden Foundation was featured in a report released by the Center for New Community just last week. The report outlined how anti-immigrant groups have corrupted the dialogue on population and the environment over the last 14 years. Read more
Negative Population Growth Plants Anti-immigrant Advertisement in Washington Times
July brought another advertisement in the Washington Times by anti-immigrant group Negative Population Growth (NPG). NPG attacks immigrants in order to tap into the urgency of the environmental movement around the BP oil spill. This is just one more attempt to further the manipulative demand for U.S. Population Stabilization by white nationalists and anti-immigration groups.
NPG’s advertisement reads,
THE CRISIS IN THE GULF OF MEXICO IS ONLY THE BEGINNING…Without a national population policy America will face future environmental disasters on a regular basis!
The problem with NPG’s message is not that it’s concerned with the population growth of our planet; the main problem is who is behind this group, who they are connected to and why they link national immigration to world population. Read more
Even Bigots Have Sympathizers
FAIR founder John Tanton
No matter how much controversy rains down on anti-immigrant groups like the Federation for American Immigration (founded by white nationalist John Tanton), some politicians and media pundits persistently give them the benefit of the doubt. Why? Because a lot of times human nature tells us to let our personal agendas override common sense. Even when we are in positions of influence.
I was reminded of this facet of human behavior over the weekend while listening to various talk radio hosts (all men) discuss Mel Gibson’s recent antics. One host inanely said “Gibson’s rants and actions are totally indefensible…” pause, “but what I want to know if he really said those things…I want to know first if this woman set him up.” Common sense tells us that the same guy who hurled anti-Semitic slurs at a female police officer a few years ago, whose voice is on record verbally abusing his girlfriend and admitting to hitting her, did something terribly wrong, something “indefensible.” But Mr. Radio Host likely has a little racist misogynist deep down inside telling him to defend the guy who punched his girlfriend in the face.
So it goes. Even the lowliest characters have their sympathizers, and anti-immigrant groups are no exception. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Groups Forced to Address Ties to White Nationalists
It’s no secret that the anti-immigrant movement in the United States has long and deep connections to white nationalist individuals and organizations. The current anti-immigrant movement is tainted by these ties and they follow the anti-immigrant individuals and organizations into whatever area they go. For years, civil rights organizations like the Center for New Community, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, to name a few, have exposed these ties for the world to see.
Since the summer began we have seen many examples of anti-immigrant organizations forced to act in defense of their ties to white nationalist individuals and organizations. Here are a few examples:
Kris Kobach, a lawyer for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the hate group Federation for American Immigration Reform, and his buddy Sheriff Joe Arpaio were forced to relocate a Kansas anti-immigrant event after the location raised concerns. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Leader Defends Controversial Environmentalist
Durant posing with white nationalists Wayne Lutton & Peter Gemma
Imagine 2050 hit the nail on the head a nerve with anti-immigrant groups a few weeks ago when we posted an article about one of the anti-immigrant movement’s environmentalists-for-hire, Philip Cafaro.
Leah Durant, executive director of Progressives For Immigration Reform, sent us a rebuttal defending her friend (Cafaro) and attacking me. In her email she asked that we publish her lengthy response on our site. Normally, we would, but we have this policy about providing platforms for bigots - we just don’t do it.
However, I would like to share some of what she said in an effort to help the public get a feel for Durant’s connections to white nationalism and why the anti-immigrant movement is a danger to environmental causes.
Durant starts by saying, “Garvey’s piece deceptively frames the entire immigration reduction argument in the US as simply being a byproduct of right-wing, nativist and racist bigots.” Read more
What’s Wrong With Nebraska?
When people think of Nebraska, things like the open road or University of Nebraska Cornhusker’s great college football team come to mind. In recent weeks however, Nebraska has become a hotbed for white nationalist and anti-immigrant sentiment. Just last week, the residents of Fremont, Nebraska passed an anti-immigrant ordinance which bars businesses from hiring and landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants. The man behind the ordinance is Kris Kobach, a lawyer for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of the hate group, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) which has strong ties to white nationalists.
This coming weekend, on land somewhere outside of Omaha, the American Division of Blood & Honour will be hosting a gathering. Blood & Honour was originally founded in England and is a neo-Nazi network. Blood & Honour American Division surfaced in 2005 by members of the neo-Nazi organization, Volksfront. Blood & Honour is made up of a toxic mix of Christian Identity adherents, racist skinheads and neo-Nazis. While the details of this weekend’s gathering are vague, there are some clues as to who is running this twisted festival. Read more
Roy Beck: Bogus Immigration Expert
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 president, Roy Beck, spoke at the national conference of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a blatantly racist organization that was born out of the old white citizens’ councils of the 1950s. At the 2010 National Conference for Science and the Environment, Roy Beck admitted to speaking at the Council’s conference.
2. Roy Beck worked for white nationalist John Tanton. From 1994 – 2001, Roy Beck worked as a consultant for John Tanton at U.S. Inc. and was paid consulting fees totaling more than $750,000 according to IRS Form 990s obtained by the Center for New Community. Read more
Huff Hosts Nativist Posts
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 Worker” and related “America’s Leadership Team for Long-Range Population-Resource-Immigration Planning.”
Expressing faux-concern about the undercounting of undocumented immigrants in last week’s column, Durant feigned that “the incomplete census format is diluting the voting power of millions of American citizens,” an indication that she has conveniently forgotten her friendly photo with white nationalists at the 33rd Writers Workshop put on by The Social Contract Press, founded by anti-immigrant guru John Tanton. Durant was formerly a staff attorney for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, as if her PFIR “credentials” were not enough to expose her politics. Read more
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