Weekly Diaspora: Immigration Opponents Take a Turn for the Worse

by: The Media Consortium

Thu Mar 11, 2010 at 13:11:25 PM EST

By Erin Rosa, Media Consortium blogger

As grassroots support for the pro-immigration reform March for America grows, anti-immigration groups and their allies are trying to use racial tension to stop the momentum. Opposition groups like NumbersUSA and the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC announced plans this week to partner with Tea Party activists in response to the event, which is expected to draw as many as 100,000 people to the National Mall on March 21.

Their hope? To scare the public into opposing a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

NumbersUSA, a mainstream group that was instrumental in defeating reform in 2007, has discussed the idea of calling immigrant women from Mexico "the new welfare queens," while others are spreading paranoia that immigrants are trying to "steal the next election." The White House is holding a bipartisan meeting on immigration legislation this week and the possibility of reform is worrying opponents. They are now desperately attempting to block reform by appealing to frustration and fear.

Amplifying hate

Along with actions to flood Congress with phone calls and faxes, anti-immigration forces are also spreading misinformation and proposing ways to dehumanize immigrant communities. As Stephanie Mencimer notes in Mother Jones, operatives on the far right are pushing a conspiracy theory that the Obama administration is using immigration to steal the 2012 election.

The magazine reports that the WorldNet Daily, a publication which bills itself as "conservative news website," has come up with an elaborate scheme in which a secret "illegal immigrant registration" will "open the floodgates to fraud." That's despite the fact that undocumented immigrants are legally barred from voting in the first place.

On top of that, in a conference call organized by anti-immigration group NumbersUSA, an organization that is routinely quoted by the mainstream media to oppose reform, participants suggested calling immigrant mothers with Mexican heritage "the new welfare queens." As I report for Campus Progress, NumbersUSA, which worked to kill immigration reform in 2007, held the call this week to coordinate actions against the immigration march.

"I feel the new welfare queen in America today is women coming from Mexico with a bunch of babies," said one caller.In response, NumbersUSA conference moderator Chad MacDonald said "Thank you very much. I appreciate that."

Right after that, another caller suggested that anti-immigration activists not use the word "babies," because it was "emotional." Said the conference participant, "They aren't babies. They're dependents. ... They have dependents. We have babies." While NumbersUSA claims to be against "immigrant bashing," they made no efforts to stop the hateful statements that their supporters spewed over the phone.

Smart politics

While incendiary rhetoric from immigration opponents is alarming, Kai Wright writes in The Nation that such radicalism could be a good impetus for Democrats to embrace immigration reform. "The great thing about racists is they'll always take the bait," claims Wright. "You won't get far into an immigration-reform debate, for instance, before the GOP's more zealous legislators start doing things like criminalizing priests and calling Miami a 'third world country.'"

Politically, most Americans will probably be turned off by hateful and racist language used during the immigration debate, much like they were during the lead up to the confirmation of Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In the end, the disgust factor could end up helping Democrats-if they let it.

"Immigration reform is an issue where Democrats are served better politically by picking a fight with the GOP than running from one," Wright explains. "The long-term politics are plain: Latino communities nationwide are young, growing and increasingly ready to show up at the polls. And the certain-to-be xenophobic reaction of the GOP's loudest voices today will not only motive Latinos this November, it will alienate independent voters as well."

Out of patience

This week, pro-reform grassroots groups held a press conference on Monday to denounce what they said was increased enforcement under the Obama administration, as the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency reported at least a 5% increase in deportations for 2009. New America Media reports that advocates at the press meeting pointed out that "livelihoods were lost, local economies affected, and families split apart."

"These are the same enforcement practices that we marched against during the Bush administration," said Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, who was quoted by New America Media. The outlet also notes that advocacy groups "contended that the immigration audits or 'paper raids' that have replaced workplace raids under Obama are just as damaging to immigrant communities and the businesses that depend on them."

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about immigration by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Diaspora for a complete list of articles on immigration issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, environment, and health care issues, check out The Audit, The Mulch, and The Pulse . This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

Is the Tea Party's racist rhetoric going to save broken families?

by: Restore Fairness

Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 17:52:54 PM EST

From the Restore Fairness blog. 

While it is difficult to find much coherence within the fractured and fast-changing Tea Party Movement, a look at their convention in Nashville last week shows that the issue of immigration seems to have gained greater popularity, emerging largely from the links made between immigration and the healthcare debate at their town hall meetings held last summer. Spearheading this issue for the Tea party agenda was Tom Tancredo, a former Colorado Congressman who kicked off the Nashville Tea Party Convention with a slew of racist comments meant to further the argument against immigration reform.

And then because we don’t have a civics literacy test to vote, people who couldn’t even spell vote, or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House named Barack Hussein Obama.

The Nashville Convention sought to unite the movement against the path to legalization. Tancredo’s opening speech included the argument that while Obama’s plans for immigration reform needed to be halted, it was a good thing that McCain had not been elected or he would already have ensured that Rep. Gutierrez’s bill for immigration reform was passed and “amnesty” given to the country’s undocumented immigrants. He incited the audience to protect the country’s culture saying “our culture is based on Judeo-Christian values whether people like it or not!”

While some, such as a Tea Party blogger Keli Carender said that immigration was not a part of the official agenda, Tancredo’s opening remarks, the prominent presence of the anti-immigrant group NumbersUSA, as well as a number of signs against “amnesty” from their individual supporters at the convention indicated that immigration issues could become a prominent feature on the movement’s agenda.

So what would Tom Tancredo have to say about the latest report by the Urban Institute that holds that immigration enforcement has a large-scale, detrimental effect on children? The truth is that the immigration system is in dire need of reform and racist rhetoric is not going to solve the complex problems caused as a result of a broken immigration system.

The report is based on research conducted amongst over 100 children of undocumented immigrants that were targeted by raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in six U.S. states. Of the 190 children interviewed for this study, two-thirds were U.S. born citizens. The study says,

Children whose parents were detained for longer than a month experienced more changes in eating, sleeping, frequent crying, fear, anxiety, regression, clinginess, and aggressive behavior.  68% of parents or caretakers questioned said they noticed at least three behavioral changes in the short-term, or three months after a parent was arrested. In the long-term, or nine months after an arrest, 56 percent of children ages 6 to 11 and 12 to 17 showed angry or aggressive behavior. The most typical changes were an increase or decrease in eating among all age groups.

Long-term separation of children from their parents is “exceptionally harmful” to the development and growth of children. The report recommends immigration reform must include alternatives to detention such as electronic monitoring and supervised released, as well as a priority quota for immigrants with children to be considered for legal residency.

It’s groups like Tancredo’s that have gone on about the connections between immigrants and crime. An ACLU brief finds that the increasing criminalization of undocumented immigrants has led to a diversion of attention and resources away from more serious criminal offenses such as organized crime, gun trafficking and white collar crimes. For starters unlawful presence in the United States is NOT a “crime”. And secondly only the Federal Government can regulate immigration. So when states and localities use criminal laws to go after undocumented immigrants, they are not only adding to the misinformed rhetoric around “criminal” immigrants but actually diverting resources from where they should be applied. Moreover, studies have shown that increased immigration does not lead to increased crime and that immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated for violating criminal laws than non-immigrants.

Once again, we urge the leaders and citizens of this country to step away from their petty vendettas and take a look at the bigger picture, both in terms of what already exists and in terms of what would be best for all.

Bad Apples in A Decaying Orchard

by: nezua

Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 14:39:01 PM EST

Bellingham Raid Focus Results in Drastically Different Outcome

by: nezua

Fri Apr 17, 2009 at 14:47:45 PM EST

Shortly after, Janet Napolitano confessed that the raid had taken even her by surprise, that she was not consulted, and that she would order a review. Speaker Pelosi was soon quoted speaking out against the devastating effects our "enforcement" tactics have been having on communities.

Did the focus have an effect on how this raid played out in the aftermath?

Anti-Immigrant Lobby Exposed, Help us Fight the Hate

by: rachelfirm

Tue Feb 03, 2009 at 14:39:54 PM EST

FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform), the Center for Immigration Studies and NumbersUSA. I have mentioned these anti-immigrant groups before - they purport to be "think tanks" or "grass roots orgs" and have a "common sense" approach to immigration policy, but are really espousing the type of hateful and inhumane immigration policies that have been responsible for the last 8 years of rising hate crimes and enforcement-only tactics. For more information, check out my previous posts on these groups:here, here and here. Click here to check out a video from America's Voice about these guys. Some have dubbed these guys the "anti-immigrant lobby", seeing as how they can turn every single issue in American politics into a soapbox for their xenophobic and radical anti-immigrant beliefs. Just recently they tried to deny immigrant children healthcare and burden businesses with mandatory use of the fatally flawed E-verify program. Last summer, they went as far as blaming immigrants for Global Warming. No, really.

Well now, more than ever, these guys are being exposed for what they really are "wolves in sheep's clothing". last week, the New York Times featured an editorial on these extremists groups - here's an excerpt:

The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism. Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.

Today, the Southern Povery Law Center released a report that proves undoubtedly just how extreme these groups really are. And America's Voice has built a website where people can take action to help stop the hate in the immigration debate.

Click here to visit the site and vote on the "Top Anti-Immigrant Wolf in Sheep's Clothing".

You can also download the full report from the SPLC. We know that organizations like the Center for Immigration Studies, Numbers USA, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) are not mainstream voices on immigration, but our politicians and media need to know it, too. Visit America's Voice to take action against the extreme in the mainstream.

Anti-immigrant Lobby's Latest Hate Front Group: Immigration News Daily

by: ragemail

Sat Nov 29, 2008 at 19:50:13 PM EST

FAIR Ad Targets Left in Nation Magazine

by: ragemail

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 20:44:10 PM EST

John Tanton and Peter Brimelow Publish Racist Tract Together

by: ragemail

Fri Jun 27, 2008 at 13:34:00 PM EST

P.S. All this racist crap is paid for by you, the taxpayer. VDare is a so-called "non-profit" corporation.

Eugenics and Nativism: Joined at the Hip

by: ragemail

Mon Jun 23, 2008 at 21:30:44 PM EST