Border Guardians Preach Violence Against Immigrants, Says Southern Poverty Law Center

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a prominent anti-immigration leader has secretly urged the nation’s largest neo-Nazi group to launch a campaign of violence and harassment against undocumented workers in the United States. Laine Lawless, who started the group called Border Guardians last year, sent an April 3 e-mail to Mark Martin, “SS commander” of the Western Ohio unit of the National Socialist Movement, which has 59 chapters in 30 states. It was titled, “How to GET RID OF THEM!” The e-mail from Lawless, who was also an original member of the group that morphed into the Minuteman Project, offered suggestions for ways to harass and terrorize undocumented immigrants, including robbery and “beating up illegals” as they leave their workplace. “Maybe some of your warriors for the race would be the kind of people willing to implement some of these ideas,” Lawless wrote. “I’m not ready to come out on this. … Please don’t use my name. THANKS.” At the request of Lawless, who declined to respond to questions from the Intelligence Report, Martin posted her suggestions to a number of neo-Nazi bulletin boards. Those suggestions included: “Steal the money from any illegal walking into a bank or check cashing place.” “Make every illegal alien feel the heat of being a person without status. … I hear the rednecks in the South are beating up illegals as the textile mills have closed. Use your imagination.” “Discourage Spanish-speaking children from going to school. Be creative.” “Create an anonymous propaganda campaign warning that any further illegal immigrants will be shot, maimed or seriously messed-up upon crossing the border. This should be fairly easy to do, considering the hysteria of the Spanish language press, and how they view the Minutemen as ‘racists & vigilantes.’” The Report contacted Lawless for comment, sending her copies of her own e-mails that included their original headers, as she requested. But after receiving the copies, Lawless refused to talk.

For the report, click here.

KJ