Equal justice
“The earth is the Lord’s
and all that is in it,
and all that is in it,
the world and those
who dwell therein.”
“Get out of my state.”
Juxtapose Psalm 24’s first verse against the sentiments behind Alabama’s harsh new anti-immigration law, HB 56, and it’s easy to see that hate, not love, is ruling the day.
Although a federal judge in Montgomery just blocked enforcement of the law’s provision which prevents immigrants from renewing required permits on manufactured homes – which could have forced illegals to abandon their homes starting next week -- passage of the law in June was a major victory for the Federation for American Immigration Reform; its legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute, whose legal counsel, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, authored the bill; and the Center for Immigration Studies, which provided research to support the legislation.
Let's take a closer look at the forces behind HB 56.
The Federation for American Immigrant Reform
In 2007, the Southern Poverty Law Center branded FAIR a hate group, stating that "The founder, chief ideologue and long-time funder of FAIR [John Tanton] is a racist. Key staff members have ties to white supremacist groups, some are members, and some have spoken at hate group functions. FAIR has accepted more than $1 million from a racist foundation devoted to studies of race and IQ, and to eugenics - the pseudo-science of breeding a better human race that was utterly discredited by the Nazi euthanasia program. It spreads racist conspiracy theories." A few years ago FAIR officials met with leaders of Vlaams Belang, offiically banned by the Belgian Supreme Court as a racist and xenophobic group, to seek their advice on immigration reform. Although we don't know the substance of those talks, it is hard to escape the fact that the push toward the Arizona and Alabama laws ensued shortly thereafter.
Immigration Reform Law Institute
With a photo of the Supreme Court Building paradoxically adorning its home page, IRLI claims that it "provides an important and innovative array of state level solutions to the problems created by uncontrolled and unlawful immigration in areas as diverse as employment, voting, education, contracts, and law enforcement."
But text formerly on its homepage, which has since been removed, states its mission much more clearly:
“The injuries caused by illegal aliens in your community have become a growing crisis in communities nationwide.
· "U.S. workers wages and working conditions are hurt when employers discriminate in favor of cheap illegal alien labor.
· "Honest businesses suffer lost revenue and profits due to unfair competition.”
· Students experience discrimination when illegal aliens take over their schools and colleges and demand special treatment.
· "Ordinary Americans suffer life-threatening injury and pain when local police who refuse to cooperate with federal immigration authorities fail to detain drunk driver or criminal illegal aliens.
· "Greedy landlords turn neighborhood homes and apartments into modern slums by packing them with illegal alien tenants.”
· "Civic groups need help to fight nuisance and environmental stress associated with mass influxes of immigrants."
IRLI goes on, incredibly, to link immigration to environmental loss, stating that it “works to prevent degradation to our natural and civic environments caused by rapid expansion of population density, a trend linked in the U.S. to massive levels of immigration.”
IRLI's director, Michael Hethmon, has openly characterized his group's strategy as one of of “attrition through enforcement,” or urging illegal immigrants to leave the country by making it more difficult for them to find employment and housing.
Kris Kobach, IRLI's general counsel and constitutional law expert, wrote both HB 56 and the companion law in Arizona, SB 1070. He served from 2001-03 as chief advisor on immigration law to Attorney General John Ashcroft (who now, by the way, works as ethics chief for Xe Services, the infamous company formerly known as Blackwater). Under Ashcroft Kobach developed a program — the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System — that called for close monitoring of men from Arab and Muslim nations, including legal U.S. residents. The program collapsed due to complaints of racial profiling and discrimination. Despite being an apparently brilliant legal mind, his laws have not stood up well in court. "Everything he does has been a failure," Mira Mdivani, a Kansas immigration lawyer, said a few years ago.
Like FAIR, the Center for Immigration Reform is supported by money from the likes of the Mellon family, whose foundations and various arms give sizable sums to conservative think tanks each year. CRI's peculiar motto is "low immigration, pro immigrant" - the latter probably to counter any accusations of political agenda. Most notable among its benefactors is the Scaife Family Foundation, which also has given between $100,000 and $350,000 for the last several years to FAIR -- although it fails to include these latter gifts in its annual reports. One wonders how the Scaife Foundation can be allowed to check "No" on its 990 form in response to the question about whether it attempted to influence any national, state or local legislation, for we all know that giving money is the most powerful form of influence.
Comments
Post a Comment