New Anti-Immigrant Groups May Not Be What They Seem

Pro-immigrant advocacy organizations say Vietnamese for Fair Immigration, a new anti-immigrant group, may be one of an increasing number of groups that appear to be nonwhites gathering to ask for greater immigration controls, but are actually groups started with help from whites or from major, mostly white anti-immigrant groups that are seeking greater legitimacy for their views. Earlier this year, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, one of the nation’s largest immigration control groups, created and backed a group called Choose Black America, which was supposed to be an organization created by blacks who feel illegal immigration has hurt blacks. But its leaders later acknowledged their kickoff press conference in May was funded by FAIR. And they were unable to name any of Choose Black America’s members when asked. “Because the (immigration control) movement is overwhelmingly white, there’s a great desire to throw off the accusations of racism,” said Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., which has tracked such groups and broke the story about Choose Black America. “And the easier way to do that is to have groups that are not white. I think that is what is going on in many, many cases.”   Click here for a story on this new development.

KJ