On September 15th and 16th the anti-immigrant group, Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), hosted its “town hall of the airwaves” in D.C. to blast hate speech across the nation. The well-known hate group rounded up around 45 extremist radio talk show hosts to help spread its paranoid and malevolent messages about immigrants. FAIR also used this opportunity to meet with elected officials and shove their bigoted agenda down their throats.
The anti-immigrant superstar Lou Dobbs was among the radio panelists. His burning hatred for people of color (especially Latinos) was alive and well. He has many ties to the John Tanton Network - an assemblage of highly controversial anti-immigrant organizations orchestrated by John Tanton - including FAIR. Dobbs has shamelessly broadcast lies about everything from the validity of the President’s birth certificate to asserting that the “invasion of illegal aliens” was a threat to Americans’ “health” by falsely claiming that Latino immigrants caused an outburst of Leprosy. Go to dropdobbs.org to read more about Lou Dobbs and his narrow-minded viewpoints.
The tone of the event was nasty enough to draw an assembly of faith leaders from across the U.S. They gathered to pray for an “end to hateful rhetoric that creates a toxic environment for immigrant families” and to “recall the humanity and dignity of immigrants, and the need for policies that will uphold our nation’s best values, not its worst instincts.”
Also in response, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), America’s Voice Educational Fund, the Center for New Community and the Campaign for Community Change launched an advertisement denouncing the role of FAIR “in poisoning the health care and immigration debates with bigoted, xenophobic hate speech.” To see the ad go to www.seiu.org/images/FAIRflyer.jpg.
Overall, the event pretty much mirrored the sentiment of the participants: monotonous and negative. The atmosphere was hectic and disorderly. The crowds were smaller than usual. Is it possible that Americans are starting to figure out what the anti-immigrant movement is all about?
FAIR can continue to pretend that they are a mainstream organization fighting to serve the “national interest”, but it won’t be long before their agenda is completely exposed. FAIR has no interest in bettering the lives of Americans. Their real goal is to divide the American public by blaming our shared, domestic problems on the immigrant population. Don’t be fooled by their deceptive rhetoric, and remember, extremist groups shouldn’t write immigration policy.