The Lies, Distortions and Fabrications of F.A.I.R.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (“FAIR”) continues to be treated by the mainstream media as if it were a legitimate and reliable source of information. Eristic Ragemail has previously posted articles where the media will quote FAIR without elaborating on its extremist elements and more importantly on its web of lies, distortion and outright fabrications. If one has the stomach to peruse FAIR’s website, one will see a panoply of claims, all of which lack hard empirical proof or are outright fabrications of the nativist imagination.

Take for example the claim, prominently posted on all of FAIR’s web pages, that the “Census Bureau’s Projection of U.S. population in 2050 because of today’s mass immigration: 420 million.” (emphasis added) One is led to believe that the growth in U.S. population, currently at 300 million, is the result of “mass illegal immigration.” This canard is in no way supported by the Census Bureau. While it is true that the demographics of the country will continue to change, this is due in large measure to the graying of the baby boomer generation. According to the Census Bureau, the population of the U.S. will increase to 419.9 million in 2050. At that rate we would still not reach the current European Union population of 494 million (which is half our size geographically) and we would remain one of the least densely populated countries in the world.

Similarly, the FAIR website asserts, contrary to most scholarly estimates, that the current population of undocumented immigrants numbers 13 million. The well-respected Pew Research Center flatly controverts FAIR’s numbers.

As previously reported, the Center’s analysis of the March 2005 CPS shows that there were an estimated 11.1 million unauthorized migrants in the United States a year ago. Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006. A full report on the estimates including a description of the methodology can be found in: Size and Characteristics of the Unauthorized Migrant Population in the U.S.: Estimates Based on the March 2005

Current Population Survey (http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=61 ). As well, they blame immigrants for overcrowding schools, clogging roads, swallowing up open space, taxing the environment, and raising the cost of living for all. Never mind that the United States consumes vastly more resources than any other country in the world and has been doing so long before the current wave of nativists started looking for scapegoats. In any event, blaming sprawl and congestion on immigrants is simply ludicrous.

A perennial canard of the nativists, and of FAIR, is the wholly untrue claim that immigrants overload the welfare system (such as it is). Undocumented immigrants are ineligible for welfare no matter how poor they may be. In fact, undocumented workers, contribute more in taxes and social security payments that they will ever see. Rather than being a burden, undocumented workers actually subsidize the Social Security fund and other social programs.

One can dissect almost every issue raised by FAIR and demonstrate its falsity or distortion. So why does FAIR continue to be trusted as a source of reliable information when so much of what they put out is patently untrue? The answer lies partly in the nativist network that FAIR and other nativist groups such as NumbersUSA have built.

The Washington D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) founded in 1979, claims to work to “improve border security, to stop illegal immigration, and to promote immigration levels consistent with the national interest.” Possibly due to its large size (it claims over 250,000 members and supporters), D.C. location, and exposure, elected officials look to the organization for input. To that end, FAIR boasts that it “has been called to testify on immigration bills before Congress more than any organization in America.” FAIR is more nuanced in its use of language than other anti-immigrant groups and it has been used as a resource by officials, the media and within anti-immigration policy circles. However, a close look reveals a pattern of extremist affiliations and a strategy of founding and empowering smaller groups that promote xenophobia.

Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream: Groups: The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), ADL Report

Prominent in all of FAIR’s postings are click and send faxes to the media and to elected representatives. Hyperbolic and alarmist language foments their readers to save our nation. Needless to say, the pro-migrant web has not employed such measures.

More critically, why do such alarmist messages resonate with a portion of the American public? I believe, as I have stated in previous posts, that the current nativist trend is actually thinly veiled animus animus against the Latino population.

ADL's new online report, Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream documents the rhetoric employed by groups that routinely position themselves as legitimate, mainstream advocates against illegal immigration in America.

A closer look at the public record reveals that many ostensibly mainstream anti-illegal immigration organizations – including those who testified before Congress or frequently appeared on news programs – promote virulent anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant rhetoric. Some groups have fostered links with extremist groups.

The real victims in this are Hispanic-Americans and other immigrants who are being unfairly targeted, demeaned and stereotyped."

The report cites several key tactics used by anti-immigrant groups, including:

• Describing immigrants as "third world invaders," who come to America to destroy our heritage, "colonize" the country and attack our "way of life." This charge is used against Hispanics, Asians and other people of color.
• Using terminology that describes immigrants as part of "hordes" that "swarm" over the border. This dehumanizing language has become common.
• Portraying immigrants as carriers of diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis, Chagas disease (a potentially fatal parasitic disease), dengue fever, polio, malaria.
• Depicting immigrants as criminals, murderers, rapists, terrorists, and a danger to children and families.
• Propagating conspiracy theories about an alleged secret "reconquista" plot by Mexican immigrants to create a "greater Mexico" by seizing seven states in the American Southwest that once belonged to Mexico.

What groups like FAIR are really concerned about is the growth of the Latino population in this country, no matter how legitimate that population may be. This is borne out by their history of of racism and extremist associations. For example, the current posting on the extremist website, VDare is an anti-immigrant posting by FAIR board member and extremist activist, Daniel A. Collins.

According Hatewatch Intelligence Report, of the Southern Poverty Law Center, Collins has a history of racism:

Donald Collins, a member of both FAIR's board of directors and its board of advisers, has his own ties to white supremacy. Collins posts frequently to a hate website called Vdare.com, which is named after Virginia Dare (said to be the first white child born in the New World) and publishes the work of white supremacists and anti-Semites. Collins also has been published in The Journal of Social, Political and Economic Studies, a periodical run by longtime academic racist Roger Pearson. (Pearson founded the Eugenics Society in 1963 and worked with at least one former SS officer in England. He is also the recipient of several Pioneer Fund grants.)

Collins is by no means the only bad apple of the FAIR enterprise. FAIR was founded by people who admired the eugenics practiced by the Nazis and who have well-cemented ties to white supremacist organizations.

At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, a senior FAIR official sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.

“The Teflon Nativists,” SPLC Hatewatch,

It's no surprise that Tanton employs people with similar views. His long-time deputy, for example, is Wayne Lutton, who works out of Tanton's Petoskey offices and edits the journal, The Social Contract, published by Tanton's press. Lutton is not just linked to white supremacist ideas, many of which he publishes in his journal — he has actually held leadership positions in four white nationalist hate groups: the Council of Conservative Citizens, the National Policy Institute, and The Occidental Quarterly and American Renaissance, both racist publications. Lutton has written for the Journal of Historical Review, which specializes in Holocaust denial. Early on, Lutton and Tanton collaborated on The Immigration Invasion, a nativist screed that has been seized by Canadian border officials as hateful contraband.

"The Teflon Nativists",

FAIR's current media director, Ira Mehlman, was an adviser in 2001 and 2002, and his essay, "Grand Delusions: Open Borders Will Destroy Society," was published in the journal's pages. Today, FAIR still advertises The Social Contract on its website, saying the journal "offers in-depth studies on immigration, population, language, assimilation, environment, national unity and balance of individual rights and civil responsibilities."

"The Teflon Nativists,"

[FAIR organizer, Joe] Turner made one of his more controversial remarks, amounting to a defense of white separatism. "I can make the argument that just because one believes in white separatism that that does not make them a racist," Turner wrote in 2005. "I can make the argument that someone who proclaims to be a white nationalist isn't necessarily a white supremacist. I don't think that standing up for your ‘kind' or ‘your race' makes you a bad person." The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Save Our State as a hate group since it appeared in 2005.

Turner's predecessor in the FAIR organizing post, Rick Oltman, was cut from the same cloth. Oltman has been described as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) in the publications of that hate group, which is directly descended from the segregationist White Citizens Councils and has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity." He has spoken at at least one of the CCC's conferences and has taken part in one of its rallies. And he wasn't alone.

"The Teflon Nativists"

You can also watch this You Tube video put out by SPLC.

You Tube Video SPLC on FAIR

So the issue remains, with overwhelming evidence of racism, extremism and hate, why does the media continue to turn to FAIR as if it were a legitimate organization instead of a product of the David Duke mindset? This is a question that should be answered by the media and in the spirit of fair play I invite readers to fax, mail and phone these very media representatives with that question. Contact information is listed below.

Contact the Media

See that your opinion matters too!!!

CNN
Mr. Jim Walton
President CNN Worldwide
1 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303
Fax 404-878-1727
Email: jim.walton@turner.com

Mr. Jonathan Klein
President CNN U.S.
1 Time Warner Center 5th Floor
New York, NY 10019
Email: jonathan.klein@cnn.com

Mr. Richard Davis
Executive Vice President of News Standards and Practices
1 CNN Center
Atlanta, GA 30303
Fax 404-827-5453

Viewer Response Line/Comments
Call 212-275-7800 ask for Viewer Response Line

FOX NEWS
Mr. Roger Ailes
Chairman and CEO
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Email roger.ailes@foxnews.com

Mr. Bill Shine
Senior Vice President Programming
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Email bill.shine@foxnews.com

Mr. Brian Lewis
Executive Vice President Corporate Communications
1211 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Fax 212-819-0816
Email brian.lewis@foxnews.com

Public Feedback
Yourcomments@foxnews.com

MSNBC
Mr. Phil Griffin
Senior Vice President of News
30 Rockefeller Plaza 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10112
Fax 212-664-2264
Email phil.griffin@nbc.com

NOTES

In addition to founding FAIR, John Tanton has also opened up the following front organizations to give his extremist views a respectable veneer.

*American Immigration Control Foundation
AICF, 1983, funded

*American Patrol/Voice of Citizens Together
1992, funded

California Coalition for Immigration Reform
CCIR, 1994, funded

Californians for Population Stabilization
1996, funded (founded separately in 1986)

Center for Immigration Studies
CIS, 1985, founded and funded

Federation for American Immigration Reform
FAIR, 1979, founded and funded

NumbersUSA
1996, founded and funded

Population-Environment Balance
1973, joined board in 1980

Pro English
1994, founded and funded

ProjectUSA
1999, funded

*The Social Contract Press
1990, founded and funded

U.S. English
1983, founded and funded

U.S. Inc.
1982, founded and funded

And now for color commentary we turn to Nazi apologist, Pat Buchanan

By now, most informed people know that Patrick Buchanan holds some pretty extreme views. Volumes of material (much of it penned by Buchanan; see citations below) attest to the fact that Buchanan is an anti-Semitic, racist, xenophobe and Nazi apologist. His most recent work,“Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost the Empire and the West Lost the World,” has as its central thesis that had, we accommodated Hitler, as he sought to regain the lands “rightfully belonging to Germany,” or let him take Poland, we could have avoided the Second World War. Most reviewers of Buchanan’s opus have indulged in the “Great Man” machinations of Churchill, Hitler, Roosevelt and other leaders of the time, which goes something like this: had Churchill not been such a drunk he might have seen reason and not proclaimed victory at all costs. Absent from most such commentary, is the degradation of the Weimar Republic into a monstrous set of codes and laws that would eventually lead to the horrors of the Holocaust. Whatever accommodation may have been accorded to Hitler in his nation-grabbing, it cannot be gainsaid that the Nazis would have exacted a horrific human toll on the nations that they controlled (as they, in fact, did). God have mercy on the Jews, Gypsies, leftists, mentally ill, homosexuals, dissidents and the rest of the human species that the Nazis considered disposable detritus in the countries that the West ceded to Hitler. No amount of appeasement would have salved this savagery.

So the question that comes to my mind, and I wonder why it doesn’t to others’ minds, is why is this racist, neo-Nazi given so much real estate in the mainstream media? (Buchanan already hangs with the retrograde racists and nativists that inhabit the VDare website: a gathering place for extremist nutwings.) I will grant that Buchanan is possessed of a considerably keener intellect than fellow travelers, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and the very mediocre, Glen Beck. (Although, these other nutwings are not pinch-hitting for Hitler.) But shouldn’t someone say, hey this Buchanan guy is way out of the mainstream, as in David Duke/Hal Turner territory, Holocaust denier terrain, and perhaps he should find an outlet that does not carry the imprimatur of Conventional Wisdom. He needs to crawl under the same rock that houses the KKK, the Order and the Aryan Brotherhood. We know that Fox News is merely a mouthpiece for Rupert Murdoch’s right wing views, so his appearances come as no surprise. But in spite of his well-documented history of extremist views, Buchanan is featured in such mainstream, even liberal outlets, as MSNBC and PBS’ the McLaughlin Report. No such accommodation is made for left-wing commentators such as Alexander Cockburn or Noam Chomsky. One can only conclude that left-wingers must use their own channels while extreme right-wingers are always welcome in the corporate media. Self-evident perhaps but frightful nonetheless.

Citations

Books by Buchanan

Churchill, Hitler, and "The Unnecessary War": How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover - May 27, 2008).

Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover - Nov 27, 2007).

The Great Betrayal: How American Sovereignty and Social Justice Are Being Sacrificed to.. by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover - April 1, 1998).

State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America by Patrick J. Buchanan (Hardcover - Aug 22, 2006).

Conservative votes, liberal victories: Why the right has failed by Patrick J Buchanan (Hardcover - 1975).

Where the Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency by Patrick J. Buchanan (Paperback - April 21, 2005).

Citations:

Anti-Defamation League: Pat Buchanan: In His Own Words

As an author, media figure, and political commentator, Patrick Buchanan publicly espouses racist, anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and anti-immigrant views. At one time an influential staff member in the Nixon and Reagan Administrations, Buchanan has gone on to write a number of books and articles that focus on the decline of Western civilization due to what he refers to as the “invasion” of non-European immigrants in the United States and Europe. His books, along with his weekly appearances on NBC’s The McLaughlin Group, have given him substantial mainstream exposure. Buchanan has affiliated himself with extremists in the United States and abroad, including deceased racist Sam Francis and the leaders of the Vlaams Belang, a xenophobic, racist political party in Belgium.

http://www.adl.org/special_reports/buchanan_own_words/buchanan_intro.asp

Pat Buchanan: Nazi Sympathizer*? , Posted by GayPatriotWest at 2:41 pm - May 22, 2008 ; Gay Patriot: the Internet home for the American gay conservative. http://www.gaypatriot.net/2008/05/22/pat-buchanan-nazi-sympathizer/

Pat Buchanan Is A Nazi Sympathizer, by Doug Mataconis @ 3:04 pm on May 20, 2008; Below the Beltway Blog. http://belowthebeltway.com/2008/05/20/pat-buchanan-is-a-nazi-sympathizer/.

“Anger on the Right: Pat Buchanan’s Venomous Crusade,” An ADL Special Research Report, Anti-Defamation League, 1991. http://www.adl.org/special_reports/pb_archive/pb_1991rpt.pdf

“Just Who and What is Patrick J. Buchanan?” by SJ Reidhead on Thu 10 Aug 2006 10:42 PM MDT, The Subway Canaries (a conservative blog). (many citations contained therein). http://subwaycanaries.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/8/10/2190994.html.

“Pat Buchanan's Revisionist Fantasy,” Washington Post Review of “The Unnecessary War,” By Robert Dallek, Tuesday, October 19, 1999; Page A19. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPcap/1999-10/19/057r-101999-idx.html.

“Hawking Racism: Pat Buchanan's latest book is a white nationalist screed. But that hasn't stopped it from climbing the best-seller charts,” by Alexander Zaitchik, Southern Poverty Law Center HateWatch Intelligence Report, Winter 2006. http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=718

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The Media Continues to Treat Hate Groups as Respectable Advocacy Groups

Two issues of note. San Francisco, which long ago declared itself a sanctuary city for immigrants, has taken the step of publicizing that undocumented immigrants need not fear the police and that social services will continue to be extended to all regardless of immigrant status. The measure is note-worthy as many local law enforcement agencies have become arms of the Federal immigration enforcement authorities. ICE is actively promoting so-called local law enforcement in the war of attrition against immigrant communities. Many of the media stories on San Francisco's move, had a decidedly derisive tone, as might be expected. The Los Angeles Times played the story fairly straight.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-welcome4apr04,1,7762391.story

The New York Times laid out the facts in detail and then they did something which is absolutely abhorrent. In search for a soundbite they turned to the hate group the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)..

“I guess it’s what you expect from San Francisco,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform in Washington, which lobbies for stronger immigration enforcement. “But now, not only are they helping people break the law of the federal government, they are advertising it. I don’t know of any other city actually looking for illegal immigrants.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/us/06immig.html?ref=us
This is akin to asking a member of the Aryan Nations for a quote on the latest policy initiatives by Barack Obama. Why does the so-called respectable media continue to treat hate groups as respectable advocates? The answer is that in the present climate, where Nativist hate-speech is deemed to be mainstream opinion, such groups are merely reflecting the Republican paradigm: a paradigm of hate.

In case anyone doubts that FAIR and other nativist groups are really hate groups in league with racists, we will again recount that group's move from mainstream advocacy in the 80s to a full out hate group in the last 10 years.

Heidie Beirich exposes the racist strain that informs the "respected" advocates of anti-immigrant hysteria such as the organization Federation for American Immigration Reform ("FAIR") which is often quoted in mainstream media such as the New York Times or National Public Radio. Beirich dissects the tangle of neo-Nazis who populate seemingly mainstream anti-immigrant organizations.

At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.

(Where Anti-Immigrant Zealots Like Lou Dobbs Get Their 'Facts' - http://www.alternet.org/story/70489/?page=entire)

FAIR, which has consistently been treated as a mainstream advocacy group is rife with eugenitist nuts:

Probably the best-known evidence of FAIR's extremism is its acceptance of funds from a notorious, New York City-based hate group, the Pioneer Fund. In the mid-1980s, when FAIR's budgets were still in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, the group reached out to Pioneer Fund, which was established in 1937 to promote the racial stock of the original colonists, finance studies of race and intelligence, and foster policies of "racial betterment." (Pioneer has concentrated on studies meant to show that blacks are less intelligent than whites, but it has also backed nativist groups like ProjectUSA, run by former FAIR board member Craig Nelsen.)

Marginal extremist groups are identified as such in most media, however, such is not the case with FAIR and other anti-immigrant groups. The problem is that such groups hijack the seemingly legitimate fears of otherwise rational citizens for their racist agenda. While a portion of the U.S. population is racist many who have been duped into supporting organizations like FAIR do not realize the contribution to organizations that preach hatred.

Hiring Haters

In late 2006, FAIR hired as its western field representative, a key organizing position, a man named Joseph Turner. Turner was likely attractive to FAIR because he wrote what turned out to be a sort of model anti-illegal immigrant ordinance for the city of San Bernardino, Calif. Based on Turner's work, FAIR wrote a version of the law that is now promoted to many other cities. (The law almost certainly violates the Constitution, but that has not stopped many municipalities' interest.)

Turner made one of his more controversial remarks, amounting to a defense of white separatism. "I can make the argument that just because one believes in white separatism that that does not make them a racist," Turner wrote in 2005. "I can make the argument that someone who proclaims to be a white nationalist isn't necessarily a white supremacist. I don't think that standing up for your 'kind' or 'your race' makes you a bad person." The Southern Poverty Law Center has listed Save Our State as a hate group since it appeared in 2005.

Turner's predecessor in the FAIR organizing post, Rick Oltman, was cut from the same cloth. Oltman has been described as a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) in the publications of that hate group, which is directly descended from the segregationist White Citizens Councils and has described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity."

The New York Times must be held accountable for relying on such suspect sources. Clearly, they cannot quote spokespeople from such hate groups without identifying them as such.

Links:

Life after an illegal immigrant is sent home

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004330685_mexicoana06m.html
lturnbull@seattletimes.com

San Francisco Reaches Out to Immigrants

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/06/us/06immig.html
http://www.nytimes.com/gst/emailus.html

---------------------

The Seattle Times published an excellent article on what happens to deportees in Mexico, "Life after an illegal immigrant is sent home," by Lornet Turnbull. Unfortunately, the Seattle Times also quoted the same spokesman from FAIR in response to an opposing soundbite. As we've stated, the media continues to treat racist hate groups as mere advocacy organizations. Either, they should stop using such sources or identify them for what they are: hate groups.

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