The Arkansas Friendship Coalition (arfriendshipcoalition.org) is a new group formed by business and religious leaders, and their goal is to ensure that Arkansas doesn't establish Prop. 200/187-style laws as Oklahoma and Missouri have or are trying to do.

They're led by Rev. Steve Copley, and their members include the local American Civil Liberties Union (other locals are indirectly linked to the Mexican government), ACORN (far-left group; three members recently pleaded guilty for fraudulent voting registration), a Tyson Foods senior vice president (Archie Schaffer), two people from the Clinton School of Public Service (Skip Rutherford and Penelope Sur), and the publisher of the Arkansas Times (Alan Leveritt).

Now, I know what you're thinking: this is yet another group designed to support illegal immigration and make sure that Arkansas' cheap labor industries have workers. Banish that thought! [1]

In answer to critics, the Arkansas Friendship Coalition stresses that it is not putting out a welcome mat for illegals. It just wants federal immigration law to be overhauled, before state governors like [Mike Beebe] take it into their own hands.

Despite the pro-"immigrant" sales job AFC does on their home page, they're all about following the federal laws, and not about encouraging illegal immigration. Not at all!

There's a full list of their members here, and it includes several religious leaders. If you're in the area, the most effective thing you can do about groups like this is to work to publicly discredit those leaders by asking them tough questions (not just rants) about their support of the group and their goals. Find out whether they're receiving any form of payment from that group as well; even if they aren't, when they speak out in favor of illegal immigration tear their statements apart and show their congregation that they haven't thought this through all the way or that they're simply corrupt.

[1] economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10064271