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
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
Anti-Immigrant Groups Blame Immigrants for BP Oil Spill
Amidst an environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, anti-immigrant groups in the John Tanton Network see the BP oil spill as an opportunity to – wait for it – blame immigrants.
BP can’t contain the oil spill and the anti-immigrant movement can’t control its tendency to blame immigrants for every bad thing in America. On the ground, people are cleaning up oil, protesting BP, and fighting to protect their communities. Anti-immigrant leaders associated with The John Tanton Network posit a different response all together.
Phillip Cafaro, a writer for think-tank Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and for Federation for American Immigration Reform (both founded by John Tanton), is suggesting that the BP oil spill is a result of immigrant populations. Cafaro’s blog article, written for CIS and titled “Oil Spills and Immigration Policy,” starts off by stating that it would be ridiculous to connect causality between immigration and the BP oil spill. Funny enough, Cafaro manages to do just that. Read more
Population and Fake Progressives
William Ryerson, president of Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), wrote a response to Julia Whitty’s recent article on population in Mother Jones magazine. Whitty’s piece, “Population the last Taboo: What unites the Vatican, lefties, conservatives, environmentalists, and scientists in a conspiracy of silence? Population” explores population growth, consumption and the connection between the two on a global scale. She delves into the “taboo” issue of population, including the rather controversial anti-immigrant history within US environmental constituencies namely the Sierra Club.
Ryerson responds to Whitty to set the record straight. It seems he and many others online don’t find the topic taboo, rather they are happy to speak up to defend their territory around population, especially in regards to underlying questions of racism. Ryerson adamantly protects the right and urgency to discuss population as long as nativists and racists are not at the table, “There are, of course, some racists involved in population and immigration debates. However, their racist arguments are not condoned or supported by the mainstream population stabilization movement. Nor should they be.” I’m glad we are on the same page with Ryerson. Or are we? Read more
Anti-Immigrant ‘Progressives’ Embrace Hate
Back in 1963, The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream where . . . “little black boys and black girls” would “be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” I’m fairly sure Dr. King wasn’t envisioning Leah Durant, executive director of Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR) joining group shots with prominent leaders tied to the American white nationalist movement.
For nearly a year Leah Durant has been working overtime in an attempt to convince the public that PFIR is a legitimate progressive organization concerned about the issue of immigration. Recently in a discussion on AlterNet Durant argued that the fact that she was African American should be proof enough of PFIR’s progressive bona fides. Ironically Durant makes this statement after arguing that her organization was not “concerned with race.” Read more
Tanton Memo of the Month – Center for Immigration Studies
Every month, the Center for New Community releases one of John Tanton’s personal letters and/or memos, illustrating John Tanton’s close relationships with white nationalists and the formation of today’s anti-immigrant movement. The letters and memos are a public collection at the Bentley Historical Library.
As discussions on immigration reform fill airwaves and blogs in the coming months, anti-immigrant and immigrant rights organizations will debate if immigration financially benefits American society. Currently, the John Tanton Network, a web of over two dozen organizations, is attempting to represent the interests of American workers, particularly organizations like Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Almost every month, the Center for Immigration Studies claims that immigrants drain the economy, are responsible for high unemployment and decrease wages for American workers. At the same time, John Tanton’s controversial history sings a different tune. His history suggests that the Tanton Network is more concerned with dividing American workers rather than increasing monthly wages. Read more
Hate Group FAIR Looking for “Ethnically Ambiguous” Actors
Adam Luna posted this awesome blog article yesterday, Hate Group FAIR Looking for “Ethnically Ambiguous” Actors—Think You Have What it Takes? Live in Atlanta and feel like having a little fun today? Find out what it takes to be one of FAIR’s “ethnically ambiguous” bigots.
We just got word that the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group, is holding a casting call in Atlanta tomorrow for a new web video that will change the hearts and minds of the average American.
Think you have what it takes to be a mouthpiece for hate?
They will pay $500 to “ethnically ambiguous” actors in their 20s or 30s, with no Southern accent, who can work with a teleprompter — to help them put a modern face on their extreme agenda and disguise their clear ties to white nationalism.
FAIR spends millions of dollars a year on online ads to promote videos like this on websites — including some progressive ones you know and read. So if you get the part, you could be the envy of “ethnically ambiguous” racists across the country!
Watch this to learn what FAIR’s like when the teleprompter turns off:
Read more
What is So Progressive About ‘Progressives for Immigration Reform’? Um, Nothing.
FAIR front group, Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR), is continuing to assert itself into mainstream discourse. The John Tanton network of anti-immigrant groups have a long history of trying to hoodwink the public, so it comes as no surprise that they started an organization of fake progressives. The lame-duck group just released a “study” on self-identified liberals’ feelings on immigration.
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? Read more
Vernon Briggs’ Little White Anti-Immigrant Lies
Vernon Briggs
Unless I’m just coming in from a night out on the town I’ve always detested early mornings. There just seems to be something unnatural about awakening before the sun starts to rise. It makes me feel as if I’m missing some key piece of data that helps to inform my day. That’s how I felt this Thursday morning when I awoke at 4:30 a.m., but as you will see for a completely different reason.
On Wednesday I had received a call from National Public Radio (NPR) asking if I would be willing to participate on one of its daily news shows, Tell Me More with Michel Martin. I love the opportunity to dialogue even at 6:30 in the morning, and the subject was African Americans and immigration so I readily agreed. Read more
Picture This! Sheriff Joe’s Racy(ism) Photo-Op
By Dan Weiss
On Saturday protesters in Phoenix held a ‘Walk for Respect’ to bring attention to Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s civil rights abuses against Latino residents. After seeing footage of the march, I am amazed that the protesters were able to remain peaceful. A group of white nationalists showed up to taunt them with racial slurs, salutes to Hitler, and support of Sheriff Joe.
The few minutes of video footage I saw turned my stomach, but the truly shocking part was seeing hard-core white racists chatting up Sheriff Joe before the marchers arrived. They assured him that they “had his back.” Touching. Sheriff Joe didn’t seem to mind, he even posed for a few snap shots. I can’t imagine the heap of mud that an elected official, in ANY other state would be in for even smiling into the camera of a neo-Nazi. Let alone BEING in a picture with one! What has this come to?
Immigrant Haters Promote Flu Hysteria
Anti-immigrant groups have begun seizing on the Swine Flu scare to spread hateful messages about immigrants. When Flu hysteria started to take hold over the weekend I said ‘wonder how long before hate groups start blaming Latino immigrants?’ The words barely passed my lips before ugly comments were circulating the internet.
William Gheen, head of ALI-PAC is placing the blame for all the American non-deaths at Obama’s doorstep. “The Obama administration’s failure to secure our borders against a possible pandemic is putting American lives at risk at a time when days and hours matter,” said Gheen. “The weak and inadequate “passive surveillance” described during Sunday’s press conference is offensive to the rational mind.” ALI-PAC is the same organization that last month was throwing a tea party tantrum, ironically protesting taxes that pay for things like…drum roll please…border security! Gheen seems to have forgotten what century it is! While ALI-PAC is busy berating the government for not erecting a barbed-wire fence against those pesky desert crossers, wealthy tourists are carrying the flu into the US fresh off their Cancun vacations. Read more
“Greening” Again: The Anti-immigrant Movement’s Slide to Environmental Racism
“If we look at the conservation ethic of some of the countries from which large numbers of immigrants are coming, we don’t find the same sort of respect for the land and our fellow creatures that has developed here. We certainly don’t see this in many of the southeastern Asian cultures or in Latin America. They don’t have the same sort of conservation ethic we have here.”
-John Tanton, 1989
“And with every new U.S. resident, whether from births or immigration, comes further degradation of America’s natural treasures.”
-Ad for “America’s Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning,” 2008
Windmills. Water. Bulldozers. Gridlock. Sprawl. Appearing in the New York Times, the slick, quarter-page, info-ads reflect the nation’s deepening concern about energy and the environment, and invite the reader in to learn more—not about resource conservation, but about controlling immigration, the source of all ills.
There at the bottom of the ads, of course, are their sponsors—the stellar cast of America’s white nationalist, anti-immigrant movement. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) posts up at center, along with American Immigration Control Foundation, Californians for Population Stabilization, NumbersUSA, and Social Contract Press proclaiming to be “America’s Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning.” Read more
Right Prepares to Woo Left on Immigration
Real progressives would do well to prepare in the coming months. The civil rights organization Center for New Community announced in the most recent edition of its e-bulletin, FAIR Exposed, that the Tanton Network has launched a front group called Progressives for Immigration Reform (PFIR). PFIR is simply another addition to a growing list of anti-immigrant groups being set up under the Tanton Network to give the illusion that the anti-immigrant movement is broader than it really is.
This network of organizations is named after white nationalist John Tanton the founder and key leader in a network of anti-immigrant organizations, spin-offs and front groups. Key entities include Center for Immigration Studies, Social Contract Press, and the Coalition for the Future American Worker.
John Tanton is a controversial figure. The founder and a current board member of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Tanton helped secure over a million dollars in funding from a foundation known as the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation that peddles pseudo-science claiming that blacks are intellectually inferior to whites based on cultural and biological factors. In the 1930s the Pioneer Fund distributed propaganda films developed by the Nazi Germany to public schools. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Network Sheds Mainstream Charade
After three decades of being handled with kids gloves by national media, the national network of anti-immigrant organizations is now confident enough that they are jettisoning any veneer of respectability. One such organization, Social Contract Press, showed just how extreme its views are on a recently released video produced by Imagine 2050.
Founded in 1968, the role of Social Contract Press (SCP) is to produce written materials for the larger anti-immigrant movement created by John Tanton in the 70s. Tanton, a retired ophthalmologist, is the founder of the modern anti-immigrant movement in the United States. A report recently released by the Southern Poverty Law Center further documents Tanton’s relationship with white nationalists in the United States and Europe. Read more
Anti-Immigrant Groups Spread Lies & Contribute to Voter Discrimination
Social Contract Press spreads lies about voter fraud and contributes to suppression of the voting rights of Latino citizens. Anti-Latino groups, like the FIRE Coalition, are using SCP’s false findings to encourage their followers to man the polls and discriminate against whomever they perceive as “illegal aliens”. This is voter suppression and it’s downright un-American.
Sneak Peak: Who is Social Contract Press?
Social Contract Press Lies to American Voters
I smell desperation. And the stench is coming from the direction of John Tanton’s clique of racist, nativist groups. A few days ago, a report was released by Social Contract Press, the most vile, insensitive of the bunch. The report, called How Many Non-Citizen Voters? Enough to Make a Difference, is such a blatant and despicable attempt to fabricate an issue around voter fraud that I refuse to post a link to the report. This is the second report in so many weeks that has tried to paint the immigrant population as a threat to American livelihoods, and I’m fed up with their pack of lies. They would have Americans believe that the election is going to be decided by non-citizen voters. Everybody knows that it is hard enough to get your average American voter to register and then actually show up on election day to cast a ballot. Does Social Contract Press really expect us to believe that there are hordes of non-citizens out there deviously planning the demise of democracy by voting? Read more
Anti-immigrant Organization with Ties to White Nationalism Releases Report on Gang Violence
“[John Tanton] has corresponded frequently with leading white nationalist thinkers, race scientists and Holocaust deniers.” That’s what the Southern Poverty Law Center wrote in a report on Tanton and his array of anti-immigrant organizations after studying decades worth of his personal correspondence. John Tanton gave us such brilliantly bigoted quotes as,
“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.” and “As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
His most high profile organization, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), was designated as a hate group by the SPLC late last year. SPLC also identified the following groups as either being founded or co-founded by John Tanton: “Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, Pro English, the Social Contract Press, U.S. English and U.S. Inc.” We already know a lot about FAIR’s relentless war on immigrants, but what about these other Tanton groups? Read more
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