In addition to Mark Krikorian’s latest, here’s what else has been going on with various anti-immigrant groups:
- Krikorian’s organization, the Center for Immigration Studies, this week released a study claiming that immigrants imperil Republican electability because they tend to vote in favor of Democrats. It’s the same kind of logic that extremists like Phyllis Schafly have used to argue that immigration should be curtailed, lest conservatism and its related idylls die out. Keep in mind that they’re not talking about undocumented immigration, but rather all immigration. In contrast to what elected officials like Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and even Steve King like to claim (that they oppose immigration reform but are ok with legal immigration) — a substantial segment of the immigration reform opposition is just totally against immigrants, period.
- Here’s another silly correlation: in honor of Earth Day next week, Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is once again putting out ads linking immigrants to environmental decline. The pro-immigration reform coalition has the support of the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, but CAPS (which, just like CIS, has ties to that father of all anti-immigrant things, John Tanton) is continuing to insist that “if we slow mass immigration, we can slow population growth and save some California for tomorrow.” Never mind that, as Think Progress mentioned, that recent immigrants are less likely to own cars, more likely to carpool, and more likely to take public transit.
- Also check out the American Border Patrol, which this month has demanded that Talking Points Memo and other outlets print a retraction and apology for citing the Southern Poverty Law Center and calling them a hate group. ABP and/or its founder, Glenn Spencer, have warned of the secret Mexican conspiracy (“la reconquista”) to reclaim the southwest, called immigration an “invasion spreading across America like wildfire,” called for “every illegal alien in our nation [to] be deported immediately” — and wondered if Hollywood Jews are brainwashing Americans. But the organization is resisting the hate group label because, apparently, the bad reputation is an obstacle to Spencer’s efforts to sell new border-related technology to the US government.
