The Other McCain

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Report: How Southern Poverty Law Center Smeared Immigration Group

Posted on | March 19, 2010 | 26 Comments

Jerry Kammer of the Center for Immigration Studies describes how the SPLC, the National Council for La Raza and the open-borders group America’s Voice combined in a campaign to drive the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) out of the immigration debate:

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s December 2007 announcement that it had decided to designate the Federation for American Immigration Reform as a “hate group” was a dramatic move by the Alabama-based organization, which claims to be “dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry.”
The designation placed FAIR, one of the most prominent organizations that favor reduced immigration and oppose a sweeping legalization of illegal immigrants, on an SPLC list occupied by notoriously bigoted groups of racist skinheads, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan. . . .
The SPLC’s move was not an act of conscience. Nor was it the bark of a public-interest watchdog. It was a publicity stunt in the service of the National Council of La Raza, which was about to launch a campaign intended to drive FAIR from the arena of public debate on national immigration policy. . . .
The campaign’s strategy was to portray FAIR as an extremist organization, so tainted by hatred and racism that it should be excluded from the public discussion of immigration. La Raza president and CEO Janet Murguia personally led the attack. Appearing on the Lou Dobbs show in early 2008, she cited the SPLC’s designation and declared, “FAIR is a known, documented hate group.”
Another NCLR ally in the campaign was a new organization called America’s Voice, whose work to influence public opinion on immigration policy is being funded by a $6 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, a philanthropic foundation. America’s Voice is directed by Frank Sharry, who for 17 years was executive director of the National Immigration Forum, which bills itself as “the nation’s premier immigrant rights organization.” Its board of directors includes representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, the National Immigration Law Center, and the American Nursery & Landscape Association.
As reported in the Carnegie Corporation’s magazine, America’s Voice was launched as a “communications effort designed to more directly challenge those who oppose immigration reform.” The organization sponsored full-page ads that touted the SPLC’s “hate group” declaration in Politico and Roll Call, Capitol Hill newspapers that are widely read by congressional staff and other members of the Washington political establishment.
“The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is Designated a HATE GROUP by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” said the ad, using red capital letters to highlight “FAIR” and “HATE GROUP.” It added, “Extremist groups, like FAIR, shouldn’t write immigration policy.” . . .

That’s from a 28-page report (PDF), which also includes this:

Laird Wilcox is the principal donor of the files, journals, and books in the massive Wilcox Collection of Political Movements in the Spencer Research Library at the University of Kansas. . . .
Wilcox, who was a student radical in the 1960s and now calls himself “a classical free-speech liberal,” has observed the SPLC for years. “They want to marginalize certain points of view in our society, and they do it by acting like a kind of certifying agency that decides who is extremist and who isn’t,” he said. . . .
Wilcox says compliant, unquestioning reporters have been key to the SPLC’s efforts. “The media has just rolled over for them,” he said. . . .
The Des Moines Register has been particularly sympathetic to the SPLC and La Raza. It quoted one immigration advocate who criticized radio hosts for participating in an event sponsored by FAIR. “It’d be the same thing if the radio talk show hosts had agreed to a radio event hosted by the KKK,” she said. Such slanted coverage has been helpful to the SPLC’s campaign to smear FAIR and, by extension, other organizations that favor reduced levels of immigration. . . .

Read the whole thing.

Category: Immigration

Comments

26 Responses to “Report: How Southern Poverty Law Center Smeared Immigration Group”

  1. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 3:48 pm

    When you criticize the Southern Poverty Law Center and St. Morris Dees it is considered blashemy and proof of racism.

    Because I say so.

    I have studied great leaders like Jim Jones, David Koresh, L. Ron Hubbard. I am greater than them, more powerful and my will is stronger.

  2. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 10:48 am

    When you criticize the Southern Poverty Law Center and St. Morris Dees it is considered blashemy and proof of racism.

    Because I say so.

    I have studied great leaders like Jim Jones, David Koresh, L. Ron Hubbard. I am greater than them, more powerful and my will is stronger.

  3. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 4:08 pm

    You are also friends with Pamela Shrieking Harpy Geller, the notorious Anti Semite, and other wing nuts. You oppose Obamacare, because you hate poor people, and puppies, and bikes.

    And now a Little Green Football musical interlude.

  4. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 11:08 am

    You are also friends with Pamela Shrieking Harpy Geller, the notorious Anti Semite, and other wing nuts. You oppose Obamacare, because you hate poor people, and puppies, and bikes.

    And now a Little Green Football musical interlude.

  5. The Osprey
    March 19th, 2010 @ 5:45 pm

    Charles Johnson, aka the “Pale Hippie Bicyclist of the Apocalypse”.

  6. The Osprey
    March 19th, 2010 @ 12:45 pm

    Charles Johnson, aka the “Pale Hippie Bicyclist of the Apocalypse”.

  7. cobra
    March 19th, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

    SPLC, LaRaza (The Race…) and ACLU are anti-American.
    Period.
    And, the same about the slime ball named Charles Johnson/Lizard.

  8. cobra
    March 19th, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

    SPLC, LaRaza (The Race…) and ACLU are anti-American.
    Period.
    And, the same about the slime ball named Charles Johnson/Lizard.

  9. gahrie
    March 19th, 2010 @ 7:33 pm

    I’m going to start an organization named “The Race” designed to promote the rights of Europeans and return control of Mexico to Spain.

  10. gahrie
    March 19th, 2010 @ 2:33 pm

    I’m going to start an organization named “The Race” designed to promote the rights of Europeans and return control of Mexico to Spain.

  11. Adobe Walls
    March 19th, 2010 @ 8:49 pm

    @gahrie;
    I like it.

  12. Adobe Walls
    March 19th, 2010 @ 3:49 pm

    @gahrie;
    I like it.

  13. Cheney W. Halliburton
    March 19th, 2010 @ 9:21 pm

    Where do I sign up?

  14. Cheney W. Halliburton
    March 19th, 2010 @ 4:21 pm

    Where do I sign up?

  15. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 10:27 pm

    See all the racists above with their racist agenda. Smearing Latino cultural groups like La Raza. The stink of this racism is worse than Wild Irish Rose’s body odor. And that is saying a lot.

  16. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 5:27 pm

    See all the racists above with their racist agenda. Smearing Latino cultural groups like La Raza. The stink of this racism is worse than Wild Irish Rose’s body odor. And that is saying a lot.

  17. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 10:29 pm

    Sharmuta had some stinky breath too. But now with my new finacee I have given old Sharm da boot. Plus that incident where she killed the trainer at Sea World made keeping her around problematic.

  18. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 5:29 pm

    Sharmuta had some stinky breath too. But now with my new finacee I have given old Sharm da boot. Plus that incident where she killed the trainer at Sea World made keeping her around problematic.

  19. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 10:34 pm

    Stalker sites are everywhere. You cannot trust anyone anymore. Anyway, I did ban the fat old cow and good riddens. She smelled like bad cabbage all the time.

  20. Charles Johnson
    March 19th, 2010 @ 5:34 pm

    Stalker sites are everywhere. You cannot trust anyone anymore. Anyway, I did ban the fat old cow and good riddens. She smelled like bad cabbage all the time.

  21. cobra
    March 20th, 2010 @ 12:35 am

    CJ, you are nothing more than a SCHMUCK.
    Get the hell out of here…

  22. cobra
    March 19th, 2010 @ 7:35 pm

    CJ, you are nothing more than a SCHMUCK.
    Get the hell out of here…

  23. LEdross3232
    March 20th, 2010 @ 3:41 pm

    You dated a whale CJ?

    Dude why not date a goat

  24. LEdross3232
    March 20th, 2010 @ 10:41 am

    You dated a whale CJ?

    Dude why not date a goat

  25. Kimberly Bell
    June 29th, 2010 @ 6:10 am

    body odor is nasty that is why i always take a bath twice a day.-‘”

  26. Kimberly Bell
    June 29th, 2010 @ 2:10 am

    body odor is nasty that is why i always take a bath twice a day.-‘”