This week the anti-immigrant group Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) announced the launch of its new blog, Immigration Reform.
The blog’s mission is focused on “redefining the meaning of true immigration reform.” For FAIR, however, true immigration reform means something very radical indeed because for FAIR immigration reform isn’t ever about immigration issues. It’s about who-is and who-isn’t, in their eyes, an American; it’s about what they believe America should look like.
FAIR was founded in 1979 by white nationalist John Tanton, a man who has gone on to found or fund over two dozen anti-immigrant groups. Tanton’s reasons for founding these organizations are summed up in a 1993 letter in which Tanton wrote the following to a friend:
“”I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”
FAIR’s idea of “true immigration reform” is calling for a moratorium on all immigration, with few exceptions. John Tanton, now an advisor for FAIR, has a more sinister understanding of “true immigration reform.” In a recent issue of his journal, The Social Contract, he called for a complete ban on all Muslim immigration to the United States.
This is not “true immigration reform”; it’s blatant nativism. FAIR’s latest social media gimmick is nothing but another vehicle designed to push a bigoted, nativist political agenda, and it should be treated as such.