Thread: IOWA: Radio show on immigration spurs dispute

December 20, 2007
Radio show on immigration spurs dispute
By JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Twenty-two radio talk show hosts from across the United States are scheduled to take part in a broadcast marathon in Des Moines next week on the hot campaign topic of illegal immigration.

Critics would like to scuttle the event, which is booked for the Des Moines Marriott Hotel on Dec. 27 and 28. They claim the sponsoring organization, the Federation for American Immigration Reform, known as FAIR, is trying to create a climate of hatred in the nation.

"We don't agree with their views that are demonizing immigrants, and we don't appreciate their coming to Iowa telling us what we should think about immigrants," said Alicia Claypool, chairwoman of the Iowa Civil Rights Commission.

Dan Stein, president of FAIR, said it is his group that is being demonized. "They're trying to discredit an entire side of the debate," Stein said.

The Marriott Hotel was contacted by critics of the radio event about the possibility of canceling the event, but that appears unlikely, said Connie Ryan Terrell, executive director of the Interfaith Alliance of Iowa and Action Fund. Marriott officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The talk show hosts will be on the air between 7 a.m. and 10 p.m., using 10 broadcast booths.

Stein said the talk show hosts "are free to talk about whatever they want."

A similar talk show radio event was staged last spring in Washington, D.C. Leaders of FAIR believe the broadcasts played a role in the U.S. Senate's defeat of a bill that would have created a path to citizenship for people in the country illegally if they met certain conditions.

An advertisement placed by the FAIR Congressional Task Force in Wednesday's edition of The Des Moines Register, promoting next week's broadcasts, took note of the defeated legislation. "Earlier this year, talk radio shook things up in Washington and helped stop an amnesty for illegal aliens," the ad says.

Immigrant rights advocates say FAIR has poisoned the atmosphere for debate by taking a hard anti-immigrant line.

They note that the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization, last week added FAIR to its list of hate groups operating in the United States. The law center said in a news release that FAIR "has ties to known racists and a long track record of bigotry."

Stein, the president of FAIR, rejected the allegations and said the law center's report on his organization contains "serious fabrications. ... It's absolutely defamatory."

Stein accused critics of the planned broadcasts of trying to obstruct free speech "and people's right to be heard on public policy issues."

The Rev. David Ostendorf, executive director of the Center for New Community, a Chicago-based immigrant rights advocacy group, said hotels and other places "have no obligation to provide a platform for hate speech."

The Web site of FAIR says the group advocates for improved border security, an end to illegal immigration, and immigration levels "consistent with more traditional rates of about 300,000 a year."
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/p ... 1/SPORTS09