We all need to pay fast attention to this
. . .
From: Lambdanet, Founded 1992 [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Aaron Hutson
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2008 6:12
PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Hate Crimes Linked to
Immigration Debate
Hate
Crimes Linked to Immigration Debate
By DAVID CRARY
Monday, March 10, 2008
Anti-immigrant sentiment is fueling nationwide increases in the number of hate
groups and the number of hate crimes targeting Latinos, a watchdog group said
Monday.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, in a report titled "The Year in
Hate," said it counted 888 hate groups in its latest tally, up from 844 in
2006 and 602 in 2000.
The most prominent of the organizations newly added to the list, the Federation
for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, vehemently rejected the "hate
group" label, and questioned the law center's motives. FAIR said the
center was using smear tactics to boost donations and stifle legitimate debate
on immigration.
"Their banner may be 'Stop the hate' but it's really 'Stop the
debate,'" said FAIR's president, Dan Stein. "Apparently you can't
even articulate an argument for immigration reform without being smeared."
The law center's report contends there is a link between anti-immigrant
activism and the significant rise in hate crimes against Latinos in recent
years. According to the latest FBI statistics, 819 people were victimized by
anti-Latino hate crimes in 2006, compared with 595 in 2003.
"The immigration debate has turned ugly and the result has been a growth
in white supremacist hate groups and anti-Latino hate crime," said Mark
Potok, director of the law center's Intelligence Project. "The majority of
anti-Latino hate crimes are carried out by people who think they're attacking
immigrants, and very likely undocumented immigrants."
Potok said hate groups were proliferating because a growing number of Americans
were agitated by the immigration debate. He said many new groups had appeared
in the
Critics of the law center, including FAIR, contend that the periodic reports on
hate groups exaggerate the threat to public safety and inflate the total by
including entities that are little more than Web sites or online chatrooms.
Potok acknowledged that some of the groups may be small and said it is
impossible for outsiders to gauge the membership of most of the groups.
Among the largest categories of hate groups, Potok said, are neo-Nazi, white
nationalist, racist skinhead and those with links to the Ku Klux Klan.
FAIR, which is frequently quoted by the media and whose officials often have
testified before Congress, advocates an end to illegal immigration and tighter
controls on legal immigration. In pursuing these goals, it says, "there
should be no favoritism toward or discrimination against any person on the
basis of race, color, or creed."
The law center said its decision to designate FAIR a hate group was based in
part on the ideology of various people who established it, worked for it or
donated to it over its nearly 30-year history. The center has issued a detailed
report outlining its allegations, although little of that report deals with
FAIR's recent activities.
The center's critique of FAIR was endorsed by a major Latino group, the
National Council of La Raza. The council's vice president for advocacy and
legislation, Cecilia Munoz, said FAIR's leaders were polished in public forums,
but represented "a very unsavory set of views."
Stein described the assertions of bigotry as "a total fantasy."
Both FAIR and law center are relatively well known in the ranks of advocacy
groups. The law center, which started as a small civil rights group in 1971,
has amassed an endowment fund totaling $200 million as of October and it
received nearly $29 million in grants and contributions in fiscal 2007.
FAIR claims more than 250,000 members and reported more than $4 million in
contributions in 2006.
Stein, in addition to rejecting the "hate group" label, questioned
the law center's linking of anti-immigrant sentiment to the recent increase in
anti-Latino hate crimes. The data on such crimes is inexact and prone to
misinterpretation, and some of the incidents classified as anti-Latino hate
crimes involved violence between Latino gangs and non-Latino rivals, Stein
said.
The law center has listed numerous incidents not fitting that profile. In one
such assault, in February 2007, three men broke into a mobile home in Wright
City, Mo., yelling "immigration enforcement" and beat an illegal
immigrant from Mexico with a piece of lumber, according to police reports.
In
--
Aaron Hutson | Program Coordinator/Organizer
Kentucky Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (KCIRR)
859-951-4422 mobile | 859-685-0387 office | 859-685-0399 fax
[log in to unmask] | www.kcirr.org