Published in The Laconia Daily Sun 6-3-2016 http://www.laconiadailysun.com/opinion/letters/95371-james-veverka-6-3-600
To the Editor,
Russ Wiles' recent source on immigration, The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), is a right wing extremist, anti-immigration group. Anti-Fascist News asked last October, "Is it a surprise that the Center for Immigration Studies, an openly anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant group, is associating with the fringe of the white nationalist movement?". German fascists had Jews, Slavs, and immigrants to dehumanize while the American neo-fascists have Muslims, immigrants, and refugees. Anti-Fascist News notes that CIS is "dominated by far-right ideas, with publications like VDare standing directly with the white separatist camp that simply uses Republican talking points to broaden the support for blocking foreign immigrants."(1) Conservative website RedState.com's Neil Stevens wrote last month, "I’ve been warning for a while now that the John Tanton universe of Malthusian, anti-immigration groups – FAIR, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) – are not our friends. They don’t promote conservatives ideas, and we should stay away from them." (2) Ya think? Even sane conservatives find in the CIS an enemy.
Libertarian think tank CATO, not exactly leftist, was highly critical of the CIS study that Russ relied upon with an article titled "Center for Immigration Studies Report Exaggerates Immigrant Welfare Use".(3) Another CATO article is titled, "CIS Exaggerates the Cost of Immigrant Welfare Use".(4) So all of the figures Russ used in his recent letter are anti-immigrant exaggerations and propaganda. The prestigious and widely respected Southern Poverty Law Center which watches hate groups such as CIS notes, "CIS studies have been regularly debunked by mainstream academics and think tanks including the Immigration Policy Center, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities and America's Voice".(6) Did I mention CATO?
Right Wing Watch revealed that in a secret memo that was leaked a few years back, CIS founder "Tanton fretted about “less intelligent” people having children: “Do we leave it to individuals to decide that they are the intelligent ones who should have more kids? And more troublesome, what about the less intelligent, who logically should have less? Who is going to break the bad news [to less intelligent individuals], and how will it be implemented?” At one point, Tanton founded his own pro-eugenics organization, the Society for Genetic Education. He also authored a paper titled “The Case for Passive Eugenics.”(7) CIS fits all the definitions of fascist.
Regarding The Southern Poverty Law Center's hate list, Mr. Wiles also claims, "Pamela Geller and Daniel Greenfield made the list for pointing out and protesting the attacks on Jews by Islamists." This is another convenient sounding obfuscation from the bigot bubble. Geller and Greenfield made the list because they hate Muslims. Period. Radical Islamists may hate Jewish people and their religion but they actually kill far more Muslims than they do Christians and Jews. I think Republican Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina has done us a great service by condemning Trump for his neo-fascist hate speech. Vox's latest on her is perfect and speaks to the depravity of Trump's rhetoric and that of letter writers such as Steve Earle. The article is titled, "S.C. Governor Nikki Haley Holds Nothing Back as She Compares Trump to Shooter Dylann Roof."(8) Governor Haley told reporters that she wished nominee Donald Trump would communicate differently, and slammed his rhetoric. "I know what that rhetoric can do. I saw it happen," she said. This rhetoric is the kind of hateful rhetoric we see from CIS, Greenfield, Geller and of course, our very own seething Steve Earle. They want us to hate and hurt. Its that simple. They hope for violence and dehumanization.
(6) https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/intelligence-report/2009/center-immigration-studies-reports
James Veverk
Tilton
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