Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) released a new report titled, “Attacking the Constitution State Legislators for Legal Immigration & the Anti-Immigrant Movement.”
The report focuses on twelve members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI), a coalition of anti-immigrant state-elected officials. SLLI was founded as a front group by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 2007. SPLC identifies FAIR as a hate group based on its ties to white nationalism.
John Tanton founded the Washington, D.C.-based FAIR in 1979. Tanton was chairman for the first eight years of its existence and continues to sit on its board of directors. In spite of FAIR’s and John Tanton’s claim of mainstream respectability, both have long histories of working with and financially supporting white nationalist groups and leaders with virulent anti-immigration agendas. John Tanton’s tentacles reach deep into white supremacist and anti-Semitic organizations.
SLLI works hand-in-hand with the John Tanton Network to distort the issue of immigration and undermine America’s values of equality and liberty. In February 2008, FAIR stated that SLLI “has worked closely with FAIR and the Immigration Reform Law Institute to develop state laws and to generate grassroots support for state enforcement efforts.”
FAIR’s legal arm, Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI), supplies “model” legislation for members of SLLI and has developed an “online model legislation clearing house” for state legislators. In a press statement, Pennsylvania state representative Daryl Metcalfe, the founder of SLLI, also acknowledged its “working partnership with the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI).”
The SLLI-IRLI relationship will help “to create a comprehensive package of model National Security Begins at Home legislative reform solutions that any state lawmaker can introduce to effectively shut off all economic attractions and incentives for illegal alien invaders,” Metcalfe was quoted as saying in the press release.
SLLI’s latest project is to target the 14th Amendment. SLLI’s plan is called the “Nationwide Task Force to Halt Anchor Baby-Exploited Illegal Alien Invasion.”
“The radical beliefs of SLLI members parallel their radical agenda – rewriting the 14th Amendment,” said Heidi Beirich, research director for the SPLC and author of the report. “The fact that we’re talking about people who wield real political power should scare everyone who cares about our constitutional ideals.”
“Not all members of this coalition have voiced such radical opinions, but by virtue of pursuing this attack on the 14th Amendment, they all have signed on to an attempt to radically reinterpret the Constitution – an attempt that one conservative commentator accurately described as a fool’s errand,” Beirich said.
The twelve SLLI members profiled are Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, Pennsylvania; Rep. Tim Bearden, Georgia; Rep. Leo Berman, Texas; Rep. Judy Burges, Arizona; Rep. Sally Kern, Oklahoma; Rep. Charles Key, Oklahoma; Sen. Brian Nieves, Missouri; Sen. Russell Pearce, Arizona; Rep. Michael Pitts, South Carolina; Rep. Matt Shea, Washington; Rep. Randy Terrill, Oklahoma; and Sen. Danny Verdin, South Carolina. To read the full SPLC report, click here.