Mexico linked groups complain about "hate group" FAIR (FIRM, SEIU, America's Voice, NCLR)

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is currently conducting the "Hold Their Feet to the Fire" rally in Washington DC where radio hosts from across the country and their listeners lobby their representatives to support pro-borders causes. Needless to say, the other side doesn't like that too much, and four such groups have joined together to place a scurrilous advertisement in the Politico and Roll Call. You can see the ad linked from seiu.org/media/pressreleases.cfm?pr_id=1753, which says:

Today the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), America's Voice, Center for New Community, and the Fair Immigration Reform Movement (FIRM) launched a print ad denouncing known hate group, FAIR (the Federation for American Immigration Reform), for poisoning the immigration debate with bigoted, xenophobic hate speech. In support of the ad, SEIU Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina issued the following statement:

"It's time that everyone learns who FAIR’s founders, leaders and followers truly are. They are not reformers, but a group of extremists whose leaders are fostering a bigoted, anti-immigrant, anti-American agenda that we must stop... ...By continuing to fan the flames of hate and fear, FAIR has contributed to rising levels of hate crimes and discrimination... ...Crude attempts to shut down our border and round up anyone who looks a certain way do not begin to solve our broken immigration system..."

There is, of course, more ranting at the SEIU page. You can read FAIR's response here. The ad juxtaposes supposedly inflammatory comments from FAIR-related persons with pictures of Angry White Men, none of whom are presumably those being quoted. For instance, I don't believe that Dan Stein from FAIR is a skinhead. The comments also deserve a grown-up discussion, something that the SEIU and their friends don't want to have. In fact, as the quote above makes clear, they want to silence FAIR and others who oppose them by calling them names. The ad including a headline noting that the SPLC has designated FAIR as a "hate group". The ad also includes a link to the National Council of La Raza's WeCanStopTheHate.org.

What the ad doesn't note is that FIRM includes one member group that's allegedly collaborated with the Mexican government and another group headed by someone who serves on an advisory council to that government. The SEIU paid someone to organize immigration marches, and that person serves on that same advisory council to the Mexican government. In addition to occasionally attempting to mislead and being the subject of at least two exposes, the Southern Poverty Law Center has an indirect link to that government. And, of course, the NCLR funds extremists and gave an award to a vile racist among many other things.

Immigration2008a · Thu, 09/11/2008 - 10:12 · · Importance: 1