In “Nativist Ringleader Behind New Website Parodying Latino Group’s Anti-Hate Campaign,” Andrea Nill reports:
….Center for Immigration Truth” was launched with the goal of “present[ing] the truth behind the agenda and tactics of the radical open borders network.” The parody site, which is designed to look just like the National Council of La Raza’s (NCLR) We Can Stop The Hate website, seeks to trivialize and discredit the Latino advocacy group’s campaign against hate and misinformation in the immigration debate. Wonk Room recently discovered that GoDaddy’s domain directory reveals that the Center for Immigration Truth website is registered and run by the same man who founded and funds many of the anti-immigrant extremist groups that NCLR seeks to shed light on: John Tanton.
Looks like John Tanton didn’t want to spring for that whopping $9.99/year private domain registration… Wonder if he’s pinching himself now. At least it’s crystal clear who is really behind this tasteless parody (GoDaddy’s WhoIs directory screenshot is pictured at right). The site itself goes in circles with its “About” section (we’re linked to prominently!), but the “Translate” section is also priceless, reading:
We have received requests to translate our website into foreign languages – notably, German, Dutch and Spanish.
You can translate text from any web page on this website into another language by using this translator. (LINKS TO BABEL FISH TRANSLATION SITE– SO YOU CAN COPY AND PASTE YOUR OWN CONTENT).
Right, Dutch. Only one problem: this is America, folks. We speak English.
Maybe we should start a spinoff site, “Speak English or Get Babel Fish.”
Nill continues with some crucial perspective on John Tanton’s life work from SPLC:
The Southern Poverty Law Center describes Tanton as the “puppeteer” of the organized anti-immigration “movement”:
It is not often that a single individual is largely responsible for creating an entire political movement. But John Tanton can claim without exaggeration that he is the founding father of America’s modern anti-immigration movement. […]
Nill argues:
In the past, Tanton has dabbled in eugenics and one his groups, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, accepted $1.2 million from the Pioneer Fund, an outfit described as having “never wavered in its commitment to eugenics and ideas of human and racial inferiority and superiority.” Tanton also owns and runs the Social Contract Press which publishes the views of known white nationalists and includes pieces such as “Europhobia: The Hostility Toward European-Descended Americans.”
On the Center for Immigration Truth, Tanton sticks to degrading all of the groups which have ever challenged or criticized his network of organizations. It describes SPLC — a civil rights organization committed to the “struggle for tolerance and justice,” as a group that “shamelessly panders to peoples’ fears and profiteers from liberal White guilt in order to line its overflowing coffers.” NCLR, the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy organization, is identified as representing “the well-funded far-left anti-enforcement mob.” Tanton even goes after the Wonk Room for “regurgitating disinformation about dedicated environmentalists.” However, the brand of environmentalism that Tanton is referring to is the one that blames global climate change and other environmental woes on immigration to the U.S.
NCLR launched its “We Can Stop The Hate” campaign in an effort to “stem the surge of hate and violence” that is currently threatening the Latino and immigrant community.
To recap, check out a video we produced last year, exposing the Tanton network of anti-immigrant organizations. Sadly, it’s just as relevant today, considering John Tanton and his followers appear to think that a rise in violent hate crimes is something to make fun of.
Watch the video, “Wolves:”
