Anti-Immigrant Group FAIR Designated as Hate Group.

FAIR had escaped designation as a hate group because they had been more begin than the other groups founded by Taunton over the years. However, in recent months, with the ratcheting up of anti-immigrant hysteria by the Republicans, it seems that the gloves have come off for this group. It seems that they have been hobnobbing with known hate groups and engaging in crackpot conspiracy theories after spending many months focusing on statistics that they claim prove that we should have a restrictive immigration policy in this country.

At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations. It has accepted $1.2 million from an infamous, racist eugenics foundation. It has employed officials in key positions who are also members of white supremacist groups. Recently, it has promoted racist conspiracy theories about Mexico's secret designs on the American Southwest and an alternative theory alleging secret plans to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada. Just last February, FAIR President Dan Stein sought "advice" from the leaders of a racist Belgian political party.

And their associations with the Belgian hate group are documented:

Much of this has been known for years. But last February, underlining the way that FAIR does business, its leaders met with the leaders of Vlaams Belang — a hastily renamed Belgian party that under a prior appellation, Vlaams Blok, was officially banned by the Belgian Supreme Court as a racist and xenophobic group. It was, for some, a final straw — the Rubicon of hate, as it were. When FAIR officials met with Vlaams Belang leaders to seek their "advice" on immigration, we decided to take another look at FAIR. When our work was done, it was obvious that FAIR qualified as a hate group. Early next year, when the Southern Poverty Law Center’s annual hate group list is published, FAIR will be on the list.

And FAIR and a whole bunch of other groups were the handiwork of one man, John Tanton:

The vast majority of these groups were founded or funded by John Tanton, a major architect of the contemporary nativist movement who, 20 years ago, was already warning of a destructive "Latin onslaught" heading to the United States. Most of these organizations used their vast resources in the days leading up to a vote on the bill to stir up a nativist backlash that ultimately resulted in its death.
 
At the center of the Tanton web is the nonprofit Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the most important organization fueling the backlash against immigration. Founded by Tanton in 1979, FAIR has long been marked by anti-Latino and anti-Catholic attitudes. It has mixed this bigotry with a fondness for eugenics, the idea of breeding better humans discredited by its Nazi associations.

And this sort of right-wing propaganda is then mainstreamed into American political thought through the efforts of Lou Dobbs, who has given these hate groups a mainstream platform and thus respectability.

This mainstreaming of hate is part and parcel of the Republican party's behavior over the last four decades after the Southern Strategy delivered the White House to Nixon in 1968. Instead of overt racism, the Republican Party repackaged the hate into more palatable phrases. Instead of "Segregation forever," what we have now is stuff like "Law and Order." And on top of that, there was an ongoing pattern of dog whistle politics, such as the notorious Willie Horton ad -- pandering which appealed to peoples' racist and nativist fears.

And on top of this mainstreaming of hate, the Republicans have moved from hate towards Blacks towards groups that it is more acceptable in this country to hate, such as immigrants and Muslims in the wake of 9/11. The Republicans appealed to fears of Muslims in the 2004 elections and appealed to the fears of immigrants in the 2006 elections.

Our Democratic response to this should be one of inclusiveness. Ever since the Civil Rights struggles, the Democrats have been moving towards these goals, with inclusion of Blacks and women as well as gays and transgendered people. We now need to take the next step -- we should display an attitude of zero tolerance for hate towards any group whatsoever. There should be no place in this party or community for anyone who has hate in their heart towards any person based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, or immigration status. There is a legitimate debate to be had on immigration policy; however, whether or not these people are equals or not under the eyes of the law should be totally beyond debate.

And there are two traps that we should avoid as Democrats in conducting this debate. The first is that we should avoid any kind of fake inclusiveness which is, in reality, no more than slave labor. In other words, we should not design immigration policy in a way that would allow unscrupulous employers to pay immigrants substandard wages in the name of "inclusiveness." Not only is this a form of legalized slavery, it will cost us votes of the middle class. Any immigration policy has to benefit the American middle class as well as show fairness to immigrants. It does not have to be an open borders policy, but it does have to be fair to all concerned.

The other trap that we should avoid falling into is dividing the base. Throughout their existance, FAIR and other such groups have engaged in a systematic pattern of dividing the base by playing off environmentalists, Blacks, union workers, and other such groups against the immigrant community. We should not fall in for their tactics, because the key to our electoral success in the future is solidarity. This is the very sort of thing that Markos has preached -- instead of environmental or pro-choice or civil rights groups operating in their own vacuum, all such progressive groups have to be able to consider the progessive political movement as a whole and not just their own cause in isolation.