Anti-Muslim grassroots group ACT for America really wants Congress to halt refugee resettlement
In a recent email to supporters, ACT for America announced plans to brief Congressional staff next month about its stance against refugee resettlement. Among other things ACT claims to be doing to attack refugee rights, the group notes it is organizing “Educational forums for elected officials and their staffers on Capitol Hill.”
“Do we really need to import more refugees like these into our communities? More Muslim refugees mean more terrorism in America. Period. This is not opinion. This is fact,” the email reads.
“We already held one, which was highly successful and are holding our second one in June,” the ACT email adds.
Indeed, as Imagine 2050 noted in November, ACT did organize a briefing for Congressional staffers featuring virulently anti-Muslim blogger Ann Corcoran.
While Corcoran has mostly focused her writing rolling back refugee rights, her work is undoubtedly fueled by a larger, more general anti-Muslim animus.
She claims refugee resettlement is part of a broader attack by Muslims on American society and said in a YouTube video that “over time, this migration will be more devastating to your children and grandchildren—and to our country—than any terrorist attack could ever be.”
In addition to ACT’s Capitol Hill briefing, Corcoran has also been a featured speaker at the group’s annual national conference. Corcoran has also accepted invitations to speak alongside lawmakers at other extremist functions including anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney’s “National Security Action Summit” and the annual “Writer’s Workshop” organized by white nationalist publishing outfit The Social Contract Press.
In April, Corcoran expressed an unfounded, conspiratorial fear of American Muslims implementing Shariah Law. “I can’t give you some sort of absolute logical explanation for it, but that is the way I see it. The threat to our way of life. Our Western culture,” she told Public Radio International.
Based on the ACT email hinting at the upcoming briefing, the tone of any Capitol Hill event will be just as apocalyptic and evidence-averse. “Do we really need to import more refugees like these into our communities? More Muslim refugees mean more terrorism in America. Period. This is not opinion. This is fact,” the email reads.
Don Barnett, a fellow with the anti-immigrant think tank Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), also focuses on denying refugee rights and spoke at ACT’s previous Capitol Hill briefing. Both Corcoran and Barnett have also participated in ACT conference calls with local activists regarding refugees.
As ACT prepares to bring its hysteric brand of anti-refugee bigotry to Capitol Hill again, one can expect Corocran and Barnett will be involved in some fashion.