The Anti-Immigration Crusader
David Goldman/Associated Press

A demonstration this month in Atlanta against legislation favored by groups opposed to illegal immigration. The bill passed.
By JASON DePARLE
Published: April 17, 2011

WASHINGTON — Three decades ago, a middle-aged doctor sat outside his northern Michigan home and saw a patch of endangered paradise.

Courtesy of John Tanton

John Tanton

A beekeeper and amateur naturalist of prodigious energy, John Tanton had spent two decades planting trees, cleaning creeks and suing developers, but population growth put ever more pressure on the land. Though fertility rates had fallen, he saw a new threat emerging: soaring rates of immigration.

Time and again, Dr. Tanton urged liberal colleagues in groups like Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club to seek immigration restraints, only to meet blank looks and awkward silences.

“I finally concluded that if anything was going to happen, I would have to do it myself,â€