In the last decade, high levels of non-white immigration have sparked a backlash against the changing racial makeup of the United States. Hate crimes against Latinos, who make up the bulk of the immigrants, have spiked. The number of racist hate groups has expanded by more than half. Frustration with what is seen as federal inaction has fueled the growth of vigilante-type groups patrolling the border and the proliferation of anti-immigrant ordinances and state laws.
Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center released a report -- "When Mr. Kobach Comes to Town: Nativist Laws & the Communities They Damage" -- that assesses the impact of these laws, which began with a 2006 proposal aimed at punishing undocumented immigrants in San Bernardino, Calif. From there, it metastasized into scores of similar proposals, many in communities with just a handful of immigrants, that would sanction employers, landlords and the immigrants themselves. Early last year, the state of Arizona adopted the harshest nativist law yet seen.
The San Bernardino ordinance was eventually voted down, but many other towns -- Hazleton, Pa., Valley Park, Mo., Farmers Branch, Texas, and Fremont, Neb., among others -- adopted their own versions of the California proposal. What's more, in the aftermath of Arizona's adoption of the highly controversial S.B. 1070 anti-immigrant statute, legislators in at least six other states and uncounted numbers of cities and towns are considering proposals for similar laws.
They may want to think twice. The towns that passed nativist laws in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Texas and Nebraska, along with the state of Arizona, have spent millions of dollars to defend them in court, and almost every judicial decision so far has gone against them. One community, faced with skyrocketing legal costs, had to raise property taxes, and another was forced to cut personnel and special events and even outsource its library. Only one had even a small part of its ordinance upheld in the courts.
That was just the beginning. The four towns and one state examined in this report all saw a crisis in race relations as conflicts between Latino immigrants and mostly white natives escalated. Latinos reported being threatened, shot at, subjected to racial taunts and more. Police are having trouble getting cooperation from any in their Latino communities. Pro-immigrant activists have been threatened with notes that promise to "shed blood" to "take back" communities. The mayor of one town had his house vandalized after opposing a proposed law and was warned by federal agents to be careful; he ended up retiring after four terms in office. Angry protests and counter-protests, along with dangerously rising tensions, have rocked one town after another. In some communities, business districts have largely collapsed.
Behind all of this stands one man: Kris Kobach, a former Kansas City law professor who was just elected Kansas secretary of state. For the better part of the last six years, Kobach has been chief legal counsel to the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). He helped to write and defend in court the laws in Hazleton, Valley Park, Farmers Branch, Fremont and Arizona, and he is seeking to do even more.
Kobach's affiliation with FAIR is important. For most of the last three decades, FAIR has been working, as its founder John Tanton once wrote, to preserve "a European-American majority, and a clear one at that." Although the organization is typically less than candid about its motives, its president Dan Stein has sounded similar notes. In a heretofore unknown oral history housed in a university library, Stein expressed his anger at the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which sought to end a longstanding and racist system of quotas. President Johnson, signing the act, had celebrated the demise of the old racist system, saying that "it will never again shadow the gate to the American nation with... prejudice." Stein didn't see it that way. The act, he said, was a "key mistake" in American policy forced by people who sought "to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance" and create "chaos."
Even if the motives of Kobach are otherwise, the experience of those towns that have collaborated with him should serve as a stark warning. After the city of Albertville, Ala., decided against working with Kobach based on his track record, the publisher of the local Sand Mountain Reporter summed it up like this: "I fear Mr. Kobach targets towns like ours, and towns like Hazleton, Pa., Valley Park, Mo., and Farmers Branch, Texas, as financial windfalls. I think he preys on the legitimate concerns, the irrational fears and even some bigoted attitudes to convince cities to hire him to represent their interests in lawsuits that may not be winnable."
The American immigration system is surely broken, and comprehensive immigration reform seems like the only real solution -- a solution that has largely been staved off by nativist groups including FAIR. In the absence of national action, states and local communities have attempted to fill the gap, passing and defending ill-advised laws that seek to preempt federal power over immigration. But as this report makes clear, that path has proven a treacherous one -- a trail of tears.
My Permanent Resident Visa says “Permanent” on it, yet I’m being deported. When friends ask why the Federal government is pursuing me so relentlessly I assure them that I’m not being singled out; this is how the process works.
Once you get on the deportation merry-go-round, you will only get off if a Circuit court orders it so (and then pray it holds up when the Government appeals any immigrant’s favorable ruling). This will be a daunting all-consuming endeavor which anyone is likely to lose. You will certainly be ruined in the process if you survive it. I often question whether I will.
Mike Burrows
You can follow me on Twitter: Mike_Burrows
Check out Posterboy for Immigration Persecution where I discuss the nightmare that is our immigration system.
http://latino.foxnews.com/index.html
FOXNEWS LATINO? I have seen it all.
More americans have been killed by illegal aliens from Mexico and central america in the past few years. Not the other way around
Wow this guy has an agenda and misinformation is part of it
First SS only needs some simple and fair changes to make it sustainable and NOT reliant on an ever increasing mass of humanity (which we simply can't support environmentally or natural resource wise anyway). We simply take the millions off the roles who never paid into it and return it to it's roots - pay in and later you get a check just like private pension plans. If you want the spouse to get a share then you take less. If you are injured you have to prove it and it must be substantial.
Now since they are spinning their wheels they have gone 180 degrees and the whites are the natives and laws to keep the brown people out are unjust and descriminatory.
Duuuuuuuuuuude - you simply can't have it both ways!
That said, this is America we're talking about, why the heck should I allow my nation to revert to being less than it is capable by giving into bigoted opinions/groups?
It is an outright lie to state that the illegals are undocumented. The facts are that about 40% of illegals are visa overstayers, and the rest snuck into the US and thus committed a CRIME the first time they set foot here. THAT is really getting off on the wrong foot. So only about 60% of them are truly undocumented, but if they have a job that is paid on the books, which is only half of those, they have committed another crime of perjury by swearing that they have legal authorization. Visa overstayers have PLENTY of documents such as a passport, visa, credit cards, driver licenses, etc. Those who committed the crime of illegal entry, if they are working on the books, they TOO have documents such as phony SS cards, drivers licenses, matricula consular. Very FEW illegals are completely without documents. Thus the term illegal immigrant is FAR more accurate and true.
Bernie Madoff gave them a few million and I haven't heard that they gave it back yet.