The Dirty Secret Behind the Nativist Lobby (Potok / HuffPo)

[struggle4progress]

Posted February 4, 2009 | 02:35 PM (EST)

At some point, probably later this year, Congress will once again grapple with legislation to reform our broken immigration system. During the campaign, President Obama promised to make this a "top priority in my first year."

Standing firmly in the path, however, will be the same triumvirate of Washington, D.C.-based organizations that were most responsible for blocking comprehensive immigration reform in 2007.

These supposedly independent groups - the Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA - enjoy a great degree of credibility among the media and many prominent members of Congress. They shouldn't.

In reality, they are part of a network conceived by John Tanton, a man who has been at the heart of the white nationalist movement for decades ...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-potok/the-dirty-secret-behind-t_b_163976.html

[struggle4progress]

1. The Top Three Anti-Immigration Groups Share Extremist Roots (Potok / Alternet)

By Mark Potok, Southern Poverty Law Center. Posted February 4, 2009.

... Today the Southern Poverty Law Center is releasing a new report, The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance examining the three Washington, D.C., organizations standing in the way of comprehensive immigration reform. The report shows that they are part of a network of groups created by a man who has been at the heart of the white nationalist movement for decades.

The Nativist Lobby describes how the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA were founded and funded by John Tanton, a retired Michigan ophthalmologist who operates a racist publishing company and has written that to maintain American culture “a European-American majority” is required. The report reveals that Tanton, who still sits on FAIR’s board of directors, founded the racist Social Contract Press and has corresponded with Holocaust deniers, white nationalist intellectuals and Klan lawyers for decades - correspondence documented by his own writings stored at a University of Michigan library.

The report shows that FAIR has been aware of Tanton’s views and activities for years.

FAIR, whose members have testified frequently before Congress, has hired as key officials men who also joined white supremacist groups. It has promoted racist conspiracy theories. And it has even accepted more than $1 million from the Pioneer Fund, a racist foundation devoted to proving a connection between race and intelligence, the report found. In 2007, FAIR was designated as a hate group by the SPLC ...

http://www.alternet.org/immigration/125183/the_top_three_anti-immigration_groups_share_extremist_roots/

[Lithos]

2. Nothing new

But good to see it getting some more press.

L-

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

3. It's nice to see this take leg.

Now it will only be another 3 years before the MSM picks up on it. :eyes:

[hay rick]

4. Thanks for the heads up. nt