What do you do if you are a racist who fears an overpopulation of "illegal immigrants" will take over America because they are "simply more fertile?" If you are the writer of these words, John Tanton, you create a network of organizations to try to fool environmentalists into supporting opposition of immigration on your unsubstantiated theory that overpopulation from immigration is responsible for destruction of environmental resources and GHG emissions. Using "environmentalism" as your cover for racist policies, you then enlist the assistance of "mainstream media outlets" that generally don’t mention your "bigotry and racism" and try to obtain further "legitimacy" by having your officials testify before Congress. No need to worry about funding when you create a cottage industry of lawyers to defend anti-immigration laws that you drafted or assisted so that taxpayers pay you millions in legal fees. This is all part of the John Tanton network that will require more research to examine all of its tentacles.
Last month, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (known as FAIR) blamed overpopulation from immigration for environmental destruction of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. FAIR issued a report, pointing the finger at the "influx of immigrants coming" to the Chesapeake Bay watershed, claiming that immigration during 2000-2009 was responsible for 40% of their population growth, and that the number increased to 66% when you consider the "number of children born to immigrants in the United States." An environmental group, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, disputes these contentions, saying that they are not aware of "any science that points to any demographic group as the main culprit." In fact, the EPA says that the Bay suffers from excess nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment that are discharged into the water from "agricultural operations, urban and suburban stormwater runoff, wastewater facilities, air pollution and other sources, including onsite septic systems." The EPA response is not immigration limits, but a pollution diet that regulates the decreasing of pollution from all sources, addresses wastewater treatment plant upgrades and other measures to limit pollutants discharged into the bay.
Anti-immigration groups also blame overpopulation caused by "unchecked immigration" for "suburban sprawl, greenhouse-gas emissions, depleted water resources and traffic congestion" while "U.S. government scientists say there's "insufficient evidence" to draw a conclusion one way or the other" whether immigration has "any significant environmental impact." The Immigration Policy Center also rebutted the "fuzzy math" of NumbersUSA.
Is FAIR just another anti-science group? FAIR, organized in 1979, is "dedicated to preventing population growth through mass immigration" and is trying to use environmental issues to expand its support for anti-immigration policies based on racism.
Jonathan Turley has this quote from the Anti-Defamation League about FAIR:
Unfortunately, however, there are today, as in the past, some individuals and organizations whose anti-immigration position is marked by mean-spirited distortions, nativist bias, anti-foreigner fear-mongering, and even overt racism. These groups foment an atmosphere chilling to the notion of an open, tolerant America that respects all persons, regardless of origin.
John Tanton created a network of organizations, including FAIR, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA, to advocate against immigration based on racism.
FAIR wants environmental groups to join them by opposing immigration in order to save our environment from the damages caused by a growing population. They use a "greenwashing" strategy where anti-immigration advocates deceptively maintain concern over our environment to recruit conservationists and progressives when their real agenda is anti- immigration. Tanton wrote an internal FAIR memo stating that they needed liberals to essentially launder their image as racists:
In 1986, Tanton wrote a private memo to staff members at the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which he had founded in 1979 (and where he remains a board member today) and U.S. English, an English-only group he then headed. In addition to denigrating Latinos, the memo explicitly laid out the idea that, in order to avoid the appearance of racism, nativists needed to win over "liberal" groups like the Sierra Club. "[T]he issues we're touching on here must be broached by liberals," Tanton wrote. "The conservatives simply cannot do it without tainting the whole subject" by attracting charges of racism.
Mark Krikorian of the CIS part of Tanton Network admits one goal is to also drive a wedge with progressives:
The discussion's most alarming comment came during the Q&A session when a young man asked Mark Krikorian why CIS published articles that supported the theory of global warming on its website. The man also asked Krikorian to explain his and CIS's connections to John Tanton whom he referred to as a man that "favors population control."
Krikorian nonchalantly answered the first question by stating that CIS publishes articles that are in favor of global warming to force a wedge between different people on the Left. Krikorian argued that people on the Left cannot be in favor of both open borders and taking care of the environment.
Not surprisingly, these groups have not been strong supporters of environmental lawmakers. One analysis shows that NumbersUSA, part of the Tanton Newtwork, supported lawmakers who voted against ACES or the American Clean Energy and Security Act that passed in the House of Representatives a few years ago:
I analyzed the House vote on ACES and found that the Representatives who scored highest on NumbersUSA's Immigration Report Cards, with a grade of a "B" or higher, voted against ACES at a rate of more than 5 to 1 (168-31).
Another analysis focused on environmental voting records of candidates supported by the US Immigration Reform PAC run by Mary Lou Tanton or wife of FAIR's John Tanton:
The political action committee has donated to 69 candidates who were ultimately elected. Taken together, these politicians' average environmental voting score, as compiled and graded by the League of Conservation Voters, is a miserable 14%. One of them, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), has called global warming "the biggest hoax ever." Another, nativist hardliner and former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, received a paltry 3% score. Tanton's PAC also supported Michael Peroutka, a member of the neo-secessionist League of the South, a hate group that opposes racial intermarriage and says slavery was "God-ordained." As 2004 presidential candidate for the far-right Constitution Party, Peroutka gave an interview to "The Political Cesspool," an infamous radio show that has hosted an array of racists and anti-Semites.
Rachel Maddow connected the dots of the interlocking racist groups (video at this link):
- Arizona Senate Bill 1070 requires police to demand paperwork of "anyone who looks like they might be an illegal immigrant."
- SB1070 was introduced by Republican State Senator Russell Peace, who sent e-mail to supporters with a "white nationalist screed, accusing the media of pushing the view, quote, 'a world in which every voice proclaims the equality of the races, the inerrant nature of the Jewish, quote, 'Holocaust' tale, the wickedness of attempting to halt the flood of nonwhite aliens pouring across the borders.'"
- Birther Kris Koback takes credit for actually writing SB 1070 and is an attorney for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, the legal arm of FAIR.
- John Tanton founded FAIR, and stated this in 1979:
Quote, "I've come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority and a clear one at that." In 1997, John Tanton told the 'Detroit Free Press' that America will soon be overrun by illegal immigrants, quote, 'defecating and creating garbage and looking for jobs.'"
- For many years, FAIR received funding from the Pioneer Fund:
For the last 70 years, the Pioneer Fund has funded controversial research about race and intelligence, essentially aimed at proving the racial superiority of white people. The group's original mandate was to promote the genes of those, quote, "deemed to be descended predominantly from white persons who settled in the original 13 states prior to the adoption of the Constitution."
- FAIR's cottage industry spawned by provision of SB 1070 they drafted:
In drafting that language, FAIR may have slipped a little something special in there for themselves. FAIR makes a living off of suing local and state governments over immigration laws. Tucked inside Article VIII of Arizona's new law is a provision that if groups like them win their cases, quote, a judge—sorry—a judge may order that the entity, quote, "who brought the action recover court costs and attorney fees"—which could create a nice financial boon for the formerly eugenics movement-funded, advanced the white majority, promote the genetics of white America anti-immigrant group whose attorneys helped write the new law."
Turley also reported last year how FAIR and its "legal arm," Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) have been "hopping state-to-state" to assist local governments to draft anti-immigration ordinances like Arizona's SB 1070 and then hire IRLI lawyers to defend the ordinances in court to the tune of millions of dollars of taxpayer money going to legal fees in this cottage industry for the anti-immigrant groups.
This video connects a few more dots together, but wrongfully introduces the issue by including these anti-immigrant groups as "environmentalists."