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  1. #1
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    MD: Anti-Immigrant Group Called 'Extremist' by SPLC

    3/11/2009

    Natives are Restless

    Maryland anti-immigrant group called "extremist" by Southern Poverty Law Center

    By Chris Landers

    About 60 people stood in the cold and gathering darkness at Annapolis' Lawyer's Mall next to the State House on President's Day, as Susan Payne attempted to place the last few protest signs.

    "Maryland is broken--who wants to hold this one?" asked Payne, a voluble woman who heads an organization called Citizens First. "Protect citizens--who wants to hold this sign?"

    The crowd, gathered to protest what they see as the growing problem of illegal immigration, was already bristling with signs with various messages--maryland democrats love illegal aliens and their votes, for instance.

    Another resembled a Maryland driver's license, read joe terrorist, 123 your street, your town, md, and featured a turbaned man clutching a stick of dynamite. Another: democrats made me miss my daughter's wedding.

    Brad Botwin, director of Help Save Maryland, the group that organized the rally, was the first in a series of speakers.

    "Welcome to freezing Annapolis," he began. "For those of you who don't know, Help Save Maryland is a statewide, multi-ethnic, grassroots organization dedicated to preserving Maryland, our cities and our towns, from the negative effects of illegal immigration."

    If Botwin lingered a bit over the word "multi-ethnic," it was not without cause. Help Save Maryland has been labeled a "nativist extremist" organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups in the United States.

    "Since 2000," says Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, "we've seen an explosion of these anti-immigrant groups across the nation."

    Beirich says that Help Save Maryland's inclusion on the list means that the center believes the group has crossed a line between legitimate protest and fearmongering.

    "We created this distinction between a regular anti-immigration group and a nativist extremist group because . . . a lot of groups attack policy related to illegal immigration, but these groups attack the immigrants themselves," she says. "Protesting the policies is all well and good. That's what you're supposed to do in a democracy. But these in-your-face tactics are worrisome--they sow fear in these [immigrant] communities. It's just scary for the people who are being targeted."

    This year there are 173 groups defined by the law center as nativist extremist groups. Two years ago, the center counted 144.

    Before the rally, as activists walked the halls of the State House looking for politicians to lobby, Payne said she hoped to focus attention on taxpayer funding of CASA de Maryland, a group that lobbies for immigrants' rights and runs education and workforce programs, but the speakers represented a broad spectrum of causes gathered under the anti-illegal immigrant banner, from the Coalition for a Secure Driver's License, who want to make proof of legal residence a requirement for the Maryland driver's license, to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which would like to limit all immigration, legal or otherwise.

    CASA de Maryland, through staff attorney Michelle Mendez, declined to speak for this article. Mendez said the group's policy was to avoid commenting on anti-immigrant groups, citing e-mail and telephone threats against CASA staff and board members.

    An occasional politician passed through the square. Payne spotted Attorney General Doug Gansler, "We miss you in the barrio," she shouted, before turning to explain, "that's what we call Montgomery County." Gansler hurried to his black SUV parked outside the State House.

    A number of politicians came to show their support--state delegates Pat McDonough (R-Baltimore County), Ron George (R-Anne Arundel County), Warren Miller (R-Howard County), Gail Bates (R-Howard County), Rick Impallaria (R-Baltimore County), and senators Janet Greenip (R-Anne Arundel County) and Andy Harris (R-Baltimore/Harford Counties).

    McDonough, introduced by Payne as "the best friend the state of Maryland has on this issue," addressed critics of what he called a "citizens' rights movement in America."

    "We are always told that we are the ones who are intolerant, that we are the ones who are not the mainstream." McDonough told the crowd. "That we are the ones who do not have compassion for the poor folks who come from Mexico and other lands just to get a job and feed their family. Let me tell you the kind of compassion we have as citizens: We have compassion for the taxpayers of Maryland who have to foot the bill for healthcare, and have to foot the bill for those who do not pay taxes. We have compassion for the victims of crime in this state--who illegal aliens, gangbangers, MS-13, people like that, bring victims to our state. That's who we have compassion for."

    McDonough warned of a "golden age for illegal aliens" under President Barrack Obama, whose name drew boos from the crowd. "Just wait and see--millions more will come."

    Among those singled out for praise by Help Save Maryland's Botwin was Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, who became a hero to the movement when he instituted a program to check immigration status on arrestees there.

    Rising crime due to illegal immigration was a recurring theme at Help Save Maryland's rally--a claim that Southern Poverty Law Center's Beirich calls unsubstantiated, pointing to studies like one done in 2007 by the American Immigration Law Foundation, which found that the incarceration rate of foreign-born men was far less than that of those born in America. She says anti-immigrant groups rely on a few highly publicized cases to make the argument.

    "It's argument by anecdote," she says. "There's no question that this population is far less criminal than white people like me."

    Reached by phone, Jenkins characterizes his immigration-status program as a popular success, He says that legal status is identified while arrestees are being booked, and that more than 300 people have been referred to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement as a result.

    "The feedback I'm getting is overwhelmingly positive," Jenkins says. "I would say over 90 percent of the citizens here in Frederick County support it.

    In written testimony to the House Committee on Homeland Security on March 5, Jenkins said that despite opposition from the ACLU, CASA, and the NAACP, the program had not harmed relations with Frederick's immigrant community.

    Guy Djoken, who heads Frederick's NAACP branch, disputes that claim.

    "It's certainly not true," Djoken said in a phone interview. "The immigrant community has been traumatized. . . . We have a vested interest in rooting criminals out of our midst, but this is not the way to go about it."

    Email Chris Landers

    http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=17692
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  2. #2
    Senior Member vmonkey56's Avatar
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    Maryland anti-immigrant group called "extremist" by Southern Poverty Law Center
    What about the hate speech toward Americans?
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  3. #3
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    Just from the headline, you can tell which side this paper is on. Anti-immigrant does not equal anti-illegal immigrant. And anyone mixing this up is either stupid or has an agenda to press: perhaps they candidates they are supporting need all the illegal votes they can get.
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    the hell with the SPLC.. we can all see how anti law enforcement they are

  5. #5
    Senior Member uniteasone's Avatar
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    down with the SPLC....DEPORT THEM!
    "When you have knowledge,you have a responsibility to do better"_ Paula Johnson

    "I did then what I knew to do. When I knew better,I did better"_ Maya Angelou

  6. #6
    AE
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    Again, we need to have a combined effort, within our movement, to get our own list of "anti-law" and "anti-American" groups such as the SLPC and ADL. We need to have a web page that shows all of these groups efforts to circumvent the laws for special interests, against the will of the voters in this nation.

    Expose them for who they are.
    “In the beginning of a change, the Patriot is a scarce man, Brave, Hated, and Scorned. When his cause succeeds however,the timid join him, For then it costs nothing to be a Patriot.â€

  7. #7
    Senior Member Richard's Avatar
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    The SPLC are scam artists who have done little to alleviate SSouthern Poverety but have done a great job lining their own pockets.
    I support enforcement and see its lack as bad for the 3rd World as well. Remittances are now mostly spent on consumption not production assets. Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  8. #8
    Senior Member Bowman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AE
    Again, we need to have a combined effort, within our movement, to get our own list of "anti-law" and "anti-American" groups such as the SLPC and ADL. We need to have a web page that shows all of these groups efforts to circumvent the laws for special interests, against the will of the voters in this nation.

    Expose them for who they are.
    I agree, plus they need to be labeled racist and anti-immigrant, because illegal aliens displace legal immigrants, and illegal immigration benefits Latin Americans 30 times more than non-Latin Americans.

    See the data at: www.immigrantrightsfoundation.org
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  9. #9
    Senior Member azwreath's Avatar
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    "We created this distinction between a regular anti-immigration group and a nativist extremist group because . . . a lot of groups attack policy related to illegal immigration, but these groups attack the immigrants themselves," she says.

    "Protesting the policies is all well and good. That's what you're supposed to do in a democracy. But these in-your-face tactics are worrisome--they sow fear in these [immigrant] communities. It's just scary for the people who are being targeted



    And millions of illegal aliens flooding into our streets waving foreign flags, making demands, and screaming racist, hate speech directed at this country and Americans isn't "in your face"?

    But let 60 Americans gather for a rally and it's "terrorizing" for the illegal aliens.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  10. #10
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Beirich says that Help Save Maryland's inclusion on the list means that the center believes the group has crossed a line between legitimate protest and fearmongering.
    Illegal immigration is a "legitimate" reason to protest. Americans are sick and tired of illegal aliens coming here taking jobs, putting their kids in our schools, and making homes here as though they can stay. That is not "fearmongering". The only people who need to be afraid are the ones who are here illegally.
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