SPLC showing its true colors

March 25, 2008

A recent article appeared in the Sierra Vista Herald newspaper of Sierra Vista, Arizona in which Glenn Spencer of American Border Patrol became the target of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). According to the SPLC, the American Border Patrol is a “hate group.”

Going on the SPLC website, clicking on “hate map” and clicking on Arizona, one discovers that, sure enough, there is American Border Patrol listed as “anti-immigrant.”

There are several different definitions for the term ‘immigrant’ but generally they all agree that an immigrant is someone who leaves his nation of birth to live in another nation permanently, someone who is not a visitor or a tourist in the guest nation but enters the nation legally, meeting the requirements of the immigration laws of that nation, with the intention of becoming a citizen of that nation, enjoying all the benefits thereof.

Going back to the SPLC website, American Border Patrol is listed as “anti-immigrant.” Anti means against; anti-immigrant, then, would mean an organization against allowing people to enter the country, legally, to become citizens.

Is this a true representation of American Border Patrol? It becomes very apparent, in a walk through of the American Border Patrol website, that American Border Patrol has no problem with those who enter this country legally with the intent of becoming citizens, are legal immigrants; that the American Border Patrol only has a problem with foreign nationals who enter the United States without the proper papers and without the proper authorization; who are, in fact, illegal aliens. Such entry into the United States is, by law, a criminal act, a criminal offense. There is a great deal of difference between a legal immigrant and an illegal immigrant or illegal alien.

But the SPLC does not list American Border Patrol as being anti-legal-immigrant, only as anti-immigrant, leaving the reader to believe, by omission, that the American Border Patrol is against legal immigration. This is not true; this is, in fact, a lie. How does SPLC respond to the obvious difference between a legal immigrant and an illegal alien? By claiming the distinction is “hogwash.” That the SPLC would claim this distinction is hogwash is telling, indeed.

Further search of the SPLC website lists incidents, per state, of supposed “hate” incidents. Interestingly, not one of the incidents listed in Arizona implicates the American Border Patrol in any way.

The SPLC claims a “commitment to racial equality.” But is that really true?

Racial equality — if it truly is racial equality — is blind, knows no race, color or creed; it does not condone the targeting of anyone. Yet not one of the incidents listed as “hate” incidents on the SPLC website for Arizona specifically listed the target of an incident as being white. Were there no such incidents in Arizona? Doubtful.

The Far West Regional Office of the National Council of La Raza, a known racist organization (La Raza, literally translated, means ‘the race’), is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Yet this known racist organization is not listed on the SPLC hate map. Neither are any of the other eight regional offices, two of which are based in California. The confrontation, on February 4, 2008, between CNN’s Lou Dobbs and Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza, aired live for all to hear (transcript read here, live segment heard here). It became readily apparent, during the segment, that Murguia believes anyone who does not agree with her pro-illegal-alien agenda should be denied their first amendment rights and their second amendment rights; repeatedly claiming, without substantiating her claims, that those opposing illegal-aliens in the U.S. are armed vigilantes who spew hate. Rather sounds like the SPLC whom Murguia referenced repeatedly as the source of much of her vitriolic claims.

Neither is The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) listed with seven regional offices, nation-wide. The co-founder of MALDEF, Mario Obledo, has stated, “California is going to be a Hispanic state and anyone who doesn't like it should leave." Now, if that isn’t racist, what is?

Also not listed on the SPLC website as a hate group is the Progressive Labor Party of California, a pro-illegal-immigrant communist group who has started at least one violent confrontation with anti-illegal-immigrant groups gathered to peacefully demonstrate and request redress of grievances with their government.

These are just three pro-illegal-immigration groups that do not appear on the SPLC “hate map”. There is undoubtedly many more anti-American/pro-illegal-invasion-of-America/pro-Aztlan-overthrow-of-America websites that do not appear on the SPLC “hate map.” Why not?

The answer to that question is found in the 2006 financial report of the SPLC:

We documented a startling 40 percent growth in the number of hate groups since 2000. Now numbering 844, these groups have exploited the immigration debate to recruit new members and have successfully spread their rancid propaganda about immigrants of color into mainstream news and into the mouths of politicians.

It becomes obvious, in all of this, that SPLC does not have the commitment to racial equality that it claims and does have an agenda in who it targets as a “hate” group. Quite obviously, the growing illegal alien population provides a new and growing population that can be tapped financially to support SPLC’s coffers. In the words of Paul Likoudis, in describing another left-wing group, those who are tapped simply become pawns in the left-wing agenda [1]. Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, wrote a letter to Morris Dees, co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, in 1996 in which he stated,

You are a fraud and a conman … your failure to respond to the most desperate needs of the poor and powerless despite your millions upon millions, your fund-raising techniques, the fact that you spend so much, accomplish so little, and promote yourself so shamelessly. [2]

Prior to co-founding the SPLC in 1971, Dees was engaged in direct-marketing schemes while practicing law. In 1998 he was inducted into the Direct Marketing Association Hall of Fame [3]. The words of Millard Fuller, former business partner of Morris Dees, bring clarity to Dees’ direct marketing skills and the SPLC’s fund raising techniques:

Morris and I...shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. [4]

At the end of 2006, the SPLC listed contributions of $29,252,084.00; stating “No government funds are received or used for its efforts.” In other words, the SPLC depends on fund raising activities and endowments. In 1999, Dees was reported to have been paid a salary of $273,000 [5] by the SPLC.

Among the more outrageous claims of the SPLC, in its 2006 financial report, is this one, found on page 3:

In 2006, the Intelligence Project documented the rapid growth of a right-wing anti-immigration movement made up of groups that are xenophobic but mostly fall just short of the open racial hatred espoused by hate groups. In just the past two years, some 250 new nativist organizations have sprung up, some of them armed and engaged in vigilante round-ups of unauthorized Latino immigrants. More and more of them have taken up the tactics of personal, in-your-face intimidation.

If this isn’t propaganda, pray tell what is it? The truth? Hardly. Beyond the obvious propaganda angle, the SPLC carefully ignores all instances that have been documented in which Americans have been harassed, intimidated and violently attacked by illegal aliens. This does not take into account the growing number of American citizens who have been murdered, raped, sodomized, assaulted and victimized by illegal aliens.

And quite obviously, that these people are in the United States in violation of existing U.S. law, are criminals, one and all by virtue of being in the U.S. in violation of existing law, bothers the SPLC not at all; nor does the bleeding dry of our social institutions — including education, welfare, medical care, and housing — bother the Southern Poverty Law Center who panders to this criminal element.

Given the SPLC’s obviously biased agenda, why would any newspaper provide them a forum? It has long been known among those truly fighting for civil rights, that SPLC does not represent their interests.

In an exchange with Ted Morris, editor of Sierra Vista Herald, a few things became abundantly clear: 1) he considers the SPLC a champion and authority on civil rights because they have successfully sued such organizations as the KKK and Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations group; 2) his knowledge of the Constitution and Bill of Rights is sadly lacking (he believes the United States is a democracy and that the Rule of Law refers to such government entities as ICE, the U.S. Border Patrol, the Sheriff whose job it is to protect him); and 3) he could not justify his allowing his newspaper to be used by the SPLC to target Glenn Spencer except to claim he was providing “balanced reporting” which cannot be equated with truth.

One of the questions I posed to Ted Morris, after his assertion that SPLC was a champion of civil rights, was why, if that were truly the case, had the SPLC not taken on one of the deepest and darkest secrets of our government’s past; that is, the CIA and Operation Paperclip which brought hundreds (if not thousands) of Nazi war criminals into this country following World War II?

True to form, Morris did not answer the question. To do so would require he admit the Southern Poverty Law Center is selective in what it pursues in its championing of civil rights. In other words, the qualifier in what SPLC pursues in the civil rights arena has a direct correlation with fund raising prospects.

There have been many, in the course of the past few years, who have championed the cause of the approximately 38,000,000 illegal aliens now believed to reside in the United States. In total, these people carefully ignore the problems these illegal aliens are bringing to our society, our economy, our standard of living, our very existence, much less the fact that every one of them is a criminal by virtue of entering our country in violation of existing U.S. law.

Glenn Spencer should know that he is in good company as far as the SPLC is concerned. Jerome Corsi is listed on their website as a “nativist” which seems to have a broad, sweeping, non-specific definition. Corsi is described as an “insult-mongerer [who] has made a career of peddling conspiracy theories in far-right publications and his own books, variously attacking 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry, undocumented immigrants, and alleged secret plans to merge Mexico, the United States and Canada into a so-called ‘North American Union.’”

The Southern Poverty Law Center’s ignorance is palpable. One might even go so far as to describe the SPLC as a left-wing communist propaganda resource.

Glenn Spencer’s response to the lies and propaganda of the Southern Poverty Law Center, championed by the Sierra Vista Herald, can be found here.

Glenn is one, like many of us, who does what he does out of love for our country; not for money, not for publicity, and not for personal accolades or aggrandizement. He knows the true meaning of the axiom, “freedom is not free; the price of freedom is vigilance.”

He is truly an American patriot who deserves our respect and support. Donations to American Border Patrol can be made here.

Sources:

[1] Likoudis, Paul; The Legacy of CHD; The Wanderer Press; 1994.

[2] Silverstein, Ken; ‘The Church of Morris Dees’; Harper’s Magazine; November 1994.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.