You can tell the socio-ethnocentrics, IA huggers, libidiot newspaper columnists and IA advocacy groups are losing and losing badly. The only arguement they have left is to throw the race card out and hope that it scares those wanting immigration laws enforced out of the action.

Martinez: Racism taints debate on immigration
BY LEONEL MARTINEZ, contributing columnist | Wednesday, Nov 28 2007 5:40 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Nov 28 2007 8:46 PM

Every time I state the obvious, that racism has infected the national immigration debate, readers pummel me with e-mails insisting that I paint all immigration restrictionists as racists. (Ironically, many stoop to using racial slurs and stereotypes to make their point, but that's another column).

Not true.

Of course, you can support an enforcement-only immigration policy -- one that excludes legalization for illegal immigrants, for example -- without being racist. And I said that in a speech before a committee of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a few weeks ago.

Instead, what I strongly believe is that in the last few years, the immigration issue has energized racist individuals and groups so that they have become increasingly shameless about voicing their opinions. It's not that everyone who wants to clamp down on immigration is racist, but racists seem to be more comfortable among those who want to clamp down on immigration.

If that's the bad news, here's the worse news: A report issued last month by the Anti-Defamation League -- a national organization founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism -- indicates that some supposedly mainstream groups have adopted the language and tactics of the extremists.

Some examples:

Some describe immigrants as "third world invaders" who come to "colonize" the country and attack "our way of life." Others describe immigrants as "hordes" that "swarm" over the border like insects instead of human beings.

Yet others foment paranoia by unjustifiably portraying immigrants as carriers of deadly diseases like leprosy, tuberculosis and malaria.

Some warn of a "reconquista" plot by Mexican immigrants to seize seven Southwest states that once belonged to Mexico.

Sound familiar? If you have an e-mail account, you've probably received messages filled with this kind of hate speech. The sad thing is that some don't even recognize it as hate speech.

Yet in one sense, it's no surprise considering that kind of language has become more common at the national level. The Anti-Defamation League report goes on to name groups like the anti-immigration Federation for American Immigration Reform and individuals like CNN host Lou Dobbs, Congressman. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., and political commentator Pat Buchanan as using inflammatory rhetoric that is similar to the arguments used by established hate groups.

To be honest, none of this shocks me.

Every few weeks, I get e-mails that blather on about a "takeover" by Latinos and/or illegal immigrants (the senders usually don't make much of a distinction) despite the fact that about 70 percent of California's residents of Mexican ancestry, for example, are U.S. citizens, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And fearmongers like Dobbs and Buchanan who masquerade as legitimate news sources are as close as some of the talk radio folks on your AM dial. They spout whatever fact or fable they think will boost their ratings.

I've learned not to take these people seriously.

But the most worrisome thing about the Anti-Defamation League report is this: If people who profess to be legitimate immigration activists don't stop talking like racists, it will become more and more difficult to tell the difference.
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