NORQUIST, RUBIO ALLIES TO PAINT IMMIGRATION BILL OPPONENTS AS NATIVISTS ON CONFERENCE
(877) 888-4319: NORQUIST, RUBIO ALLIES TO PAINT IMMIGRATION BILL OPPONENTS AS NATIVISTS ON CONFERENCE CALL
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by MATTHEW BOYLE13 Jun 2013297POST A COMMENT
An employee of Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), together with a political ally of “Gang of Eight” member Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), will argue Friday that groups opposed to the immigration bill pending in the U.S. Senate are "nativists," Breitbart News has learned.
ATR’s Josh Culling and Hispanic Leadership Fund (HLF) president Mario Lopez will make the argument on a conference call with mainstream media reporters on Friday at 11 AM EDT. Brad Bailey of an organization called Texas Immigration Studies will join them on the call.
“As the momentum behind immigration reform continues to build and strengthen, an anti-immigrant opposition is working to scuttle and kill immigration efforts in Congress,” those organizing the press call said in a release obtained by Breitbart News (emphasis added):
Many of these groups are deeply associated with John Tanton, the father of the modern anti-immigrant movement, and his network of nativist groups, including the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), NumbersUSA, and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Over the years, Tanton’s network has extended its reach beyond these groups and to some of the most vocal opponents of immigration reform in Congress. [emphasis added]
The authors of the press release added that Culling, Lopez and Bailey--described in the release as “conservative leaders"--will “dive deep into the inner-workings of John Tanton’s network--including its influence on legislators, its ties to radical population control activists, and its opposition to all immigration (including legal immigration)==and discuss the potential implications of the Tanton network and its involvement in the current immigration debate.”
Culling is ATR’s Government Affairs Manager and is working on Norquist’s behalf to lobby for the passage of the Gang of Eight legislation in the Senate. Lopez is working specifically with Rubio to do the same.
In February, Lopez distributed a paper with his byline around Capitol Hill promoting a similar message to this press release. According to the Washington Post’s Peter Wallsten, in early February, Rubio and his staff brought Lopez into meetings to encourage him to discredit groups like the Center for Immigration Studies, NumbersUSA, and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR).
“Rubio’s aides last week brought one of the organizers of the effort to undermine the groups, Mario H. Lopez, a party strategist on Hispanic politics, to a regular meeting of GOP Senate staffers, at which Lopez distributed literature about the groups’ backgrounds and connections,” Wallsten wrote on February 13. “Rubio also raised concerns about the groups’ leanings during a recent conference call on immigration with conservative activists.”
Wallsten noted at the time that Rubio spokesman Alex Conant said the Senator “has argued that some groups that oppose legal immigration should not be considered part of the conservative coalition,” and the “vast majority of Republicans strongly support legal immigration.” Conant has not responded to requests for comment from Breitbart News regarding these remarks, nor has Rubio's outreach director, J.R. Sanchez, or his chief of staff, Cesar Conda.
Lopez’s ties to Rubio go back to the Florida junior Senator’s early days in national politics. Lopez touted his support for Rubio from the very beginning of his campaign for Senate. "From the moment that the establishment lined up behind Charlie Crist, the Hispanic Leadership Fund stood up to say that Marco Rubio was the type of leader who belonged in the Senate,” Lopez said in a statement the night Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Further, Lopez has given quotes to news outlets defending the Senate's immigration bill and specifically Rubio. “People appreciate his kind of leadership and that he’s taking such a thoughtful approach to the immigration issue,” Lopez said of Rubio, according to theNational Journal’s Beth Reinhard. “People appreciate him stepping up.”
When Lopez previously accused the bill's opponents of "nativism" earlier this year, Rubio’s team did not publicly rebuke the attacks. According to the Daily Caller’s Neil Munro, Rubio spokesman Conant “downplayed the revelations” that the Senator worked with Lopez on the attack.
Lopez tried to organize a similar conference call on Tuesday but canceled it at the last minute due to what call organizers described as scheduling conflicts. Breitbart News’ Mike Flynn reported before they canceled that call that these figures’ research “draw[s] heavily on” information compiled by the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Flynn reported that the original Tuesday call “was scheduled to take place as the Senate was having its first floor vote on the Gang bill.”
The phone number at which they will present this argument on Friday morning at 11 AM EDT is 877-888-4319. The password for the conference call is “TANTON.”
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Rubio Allies Plot to Smear Immigration Bill Opponents
by Mike Flynn 14 Jun 2013, 11:36 AM PDT
breitbart.com
On Friday, two prominent Republican backers of the Senate immigration bill hosted a conference call with reporters to reveal the "history" behind some organizations opposing the legislation. According to the speakers, a significant amount of the opposition to immigration reform is being led by liberals, environmentalists and pro-abortion and eugenics activists worried about population growth.
"[T]he primary leaders and funders of the anti-immigration movement were drawn to it because they were also active organizers and supporters of, and contributors to, the population-control movement in the United States," Mario Lopez, a speaker on the call, recently wrote. Lopez is President of the Hispanic Leadership Fund. Lopez was joined on the call by Josh Culling, with Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform.
This ad hominem argument is both inane and irrelevant. People come into issues from all kinds of vantage points. I have no doubt that there active immigration reform opponents who are liberals or have overblown worries about population growth. Those views, however, don't discredit what they may say on a different issue. Nor do those views discredit what people without those views believe on an issue.
Friday's call was a leftist tactic to discount what millions of Americans feel about an issue because some other people hold views with which they would disagree. It was reminiscent of the media's attempt to smear the entire Tea Party movement because a handful of people said or did something stupid.
Even if one were to cede the premise that an entire infrastructure to oppose immigration reform were built by population control activists, the fact is immaterial to the concerns many have about the legislation before the Senate. Even if you support expansive legal immigration, it is a bad bill. Its fatal flaw is that it doesn't secure the border or increase enforcement in any meaningful way. One doesn't have to be a population control zealot to see the fundamental problem with that approach.
Surely, the speakers would hopefully acknowledge, there are many opposed to the Senate bill who don't believe in population control. I would wager the overwhelming majority of Americans who have concerns about the bill are not advocates of abortion or eugenics to control the population. So, why are the views of a decided minority relevant to an issue with national implications?
The richest irony of the call was that the speakers are allies of groups like SEIU and La Raza in supporting the specific Senate proposal. One could just as easily have a convened a press call to discuss the "history" behind these groups and why conservatives should be cautious about working with them. The speakers on the call, for example, acknowledged doing at least some work with the National Immigration Forum, which has received considerable funding from George Soros' Open Society Institute. Is that the proper alliance for a conservative?
No one should schedule such a call, however. Issues should be decided on merits, not ad hominem aspersions about someone else's motives. The call was an attempt to smear all opposition to the Senate bill as arising out of the questionable beliefs of a few people. It was an attempt to quash, rather than foster, debate on the underlying merits of the proposal.
The call also perpetuated a dangerously false choice. Conservatives should either accept legislation largely written by Sen. Chuck Schumer or be labeled as against reform. That our allies are forcing this choice is unconscionable.
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