ADL: Racist groups in the U.S. using debate to target Hispanics

A leading Jewish civil rights organization is warning that white supremacists are using the heated public debate over immigration reform to target Hispanic immigrants and to foment anti-Latino violence.

Last week, in conjunction with its annual national leadership conference in Washington, the Anti-Defamation League issued a report documenting an increase in anti-Latino rhetoric on the Internet and in radio talk shows, and an increase in anti-Latino violence. In particular, the short study claims that neo-Nazis, Klansmen and skinheads - the same white supremacist groups that typically target Jews - are increasingly directing their hateful rhetoric and actions against Hispanics.

Last Monday, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that prominent Hispanic politicians, including his lieutenant governor and the mayor of Los Angeles, had recently received death threats amid the heated national debate over immigration policy.

The ADL study provides several recent examples of anti-Latino rhetoric and violence, but not concrete statistics on the number of incidents. For example, it notes that New Jersey talk show host Hal Turner has called repeatedly for the killing of illegal aliens and of those who advocate on their behalf.


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One of the major "research organizations" on immigration issues -- Center for Immigration Studies -- and its lobbying partner -- Federation for American Immigration Reform -- are both actually funded by an organization that supports eugenics: The Pioneer Fund. They're the immigration version of the Council of Conservative Citizens: Just Klansmen in three-piece Italian suits instead of white robes.

Here's what SPLC has to say about FAIR (which it lists as a hate group):

Founded in 1978 by John H. Tanton, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is one of the country's best-established anti-immigration groups — and the richest beneficiary among them of the largesse of the infamous Pioneer Fund.

The Fund, which has long subsidized dubious studies of the alleged links between race and intelligence, awarded FAIR $1.2 million between 1985 and 1994, according to the Institute for the Study of Academic Racism. FAIR now says that it has severed its links to the controversial Fund.

Today, FAIR claims a staggering 70,000 members, although that number is almost certainly inflated. Tanton remains on FAIR's board and also is the publisher of The Social Contract Press, which sells racist anti-immigrant tracts.

Dan Stein, the group's executive director, has warned that certain immigrant groups are engaged in "competitive breeding" aimed at diminishing white power. Rick Oltman, FAIR's western representative, has spoken before and worked with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.

Garrett Hardin, a FAIR board member, has argued that aiding starving Africans is counterproductive and will only "encourage population growth." Overall, FAIR blames immigrants for crime, poverty, disease, urban sprawl and increasing racial tensions in America, and calls for a drastic cut in the numbers of those allowed in.

FAIR recently helped run a billboard campaign in Virginia blaming immigrants for traffic and sprawl. Last summer, FAIR attacked Sen. Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.), an Arab-American, for supporting more visas for foreigners with high-technology skills.

In radio and TV ads, it said Abraham's proposal could "make it easier for terrorists like Osama bin Laden to export their way of terror to any street in America." FAIR's ads were condemned across the country and caused former Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) to resign from FAIR's advisory board.

In a 1997 interview, Tanton said that unless U.S. borders are sealed, America will be overrun by people "defecating and creating garbage and looking for jobs."

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=175

There are some elements of the Right that, by their language, you can tell that their immigration stance is driven by the fact that these immigrants aren't white. This isn't to say that anyone who opposes illegal immigration is a racist; some are genuinely concerned for rule of law, financial reasons, etc. But there are some who cannot admit as much, because its impolitic, but based on their militancy and language they use to describe illegals, its concerning. Today, its very hard for people or groups to be overtly racist. So the next phase in racial justice will primarily be focused on organizations who peddle racism by another name.