Anti-Immigrant Advertising Campaign

The group Let Freedom Ring, Inc. has been running a pair of ads promoting the idea of building “a state-of-the-art border security fence” along the US boundary with Mexico. It said it bought $100,000 worth of air time for the ad, which was seen nationally on CNN and Fox News. For critical commentary, see the article “We Need A Fence? TV ads say ‘easy immigration from Mexico’ provides cover for terrorists. But the 9/11 hijackers had visas. And what about Canada?” at http://www.factcheck.org/article352.html. With a threatened Tom Tancredo Presidential bid in 2008 on an anti-immigrant platform, the Minutemen (who Gerald Torres assures me are not popular in Texas), and ad campaigns like this, what kind of immigration “reform” can we expect? Are we returning to the dark days of nativism and racism of the early 1990s and Proposition 187?

KJ