Who Is Responsible For The Immigration Wedge In The Republican Party?
The following is research conducted by Texans For Sensible Immigration Reform:
Introduction:
When you need advice you talk to someone you trust because you know that person's view of the world is one you share. You know that person does not have a hidden agenda that may be contrary to your own. If that person stands in opposition to you in those respects, would it change your mind about following their advice? It probably should.
The GOP is in the same position on immigration. We are a party split between a majority that wants to resolve a broken immigration system and establish a sensible approach and a vocal minority that labels any approach that falls short of deporting all illegal immigrants as "AMNESTY." This vocal minority is extremely well-funded and effective at convincing GOP politicians that they should avoid any attempt at solving the immigration problem. The GOP is getting bad advice from people who have interests completely contrary to the core principles of the GOP.
We call them the "Spies in the Camp" and they are FAIR US, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies. No group of organizations has been more effective at splitting the GOP on immigration. Their influence ranges across the media spectrum penetrating Congressional and state staff, cable news, conservative print media, and talk radio.
The following report demonstrates that the key players behind this vocal minority have views contrary to the GOP's principles. This is no smear. It is a scholarly effort to shine the light of day on the true motives of the people working the hardest to prevent meaningful immigration reform. It is not that they hate illegal immigration. In fact, they hate all immigration, legal or otherwise. Why? Because their first principles put the environment above everything else, including economic opportunity, liberty, and even life itself. Their goals are not consistent with the GOP. While it is true that politics makes strange bedfellows, let us not blindly accept bad advice from people who care nothing for our future prosperity and electoral success.
We have prepared a five part documented report. We pray that you would read all five reports and make up your own mind about how much weight we should give the advice from groups like FAIR US, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies. Answer: About as much weight as we should give the advice of PLANNED PARENTHOOD and the SIERRA CLUB, because their members are one and the same.
Let the GOP make up its own mind without the influence of these outside groups. Thank you for taking the time to read this important report.
May God save America!
SPIES IN THE CAMP
PART I
It is now well-documented that FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS all have ties to Zero Population Growth, abortion promoting, environmental fundamentalists who believe that mankind is the biggest threat to the environment today. But there are still people, our friends and fellow Republicans, that stick their heads in the sand and ignore the history and rabid dogmatism of these groups.
Why? Is it because no one likes to think that someone that they once supported could be capable of such conniving chicanery as to promote a hidden agenda while pretending to be our friends? Is it because we really identify with their positions on immigration such that we’re willing to overlook the radical agendas of these groups and their leaders? These questions can only be answered by us, individually; by looking into our own hearts and thinking clearly and calmly about this emotionally charged topic. This report includes the following information about the groups listed above:
- PART II: FAIR, its founder John Tanton, and his and the FAIR Board of Director’s ties to pro-choice and environmental groups such as Planned Parenthood, Californians for Population Stabilization, and the Sierra Club.
- PART III: NumbersUSA, its founder Roy Beck, his views on the environment, and population control as a means of preserving the environment.
- PART IV: Center for Immigration Studies, its liberal and pro-choice Board of Directors and its ties to Tanton and FAIR, and the appallingly underhanded motivation for forming the group.
- PART V: Show Me the Money! The source of funding for these groups and the motivation behind it.
There is little doubt that the current immigration system is a mess and it is emblematic of the state of our federal government with President Obama and his cronies in charge. Behind our nation’s debt and current fiscal policies, our immigration problem represents one of the biggest threats facing our nation today. We all agree that the current system is broken. We all agree that we want to preserve the American way of life. We all agree that a secure border should come first and foremost.
Why, then, have we done nothing? Why have we talked about how bad the immigration system is without doing anything to fix it? Is it because of fear? Racism? Xenophobia? We wish it were one of those reasons. Those reasons would make sense. But that is not the GOP that we know and love. The GOP we believe in is courageous. The GOP we believe in loves their fellow man. The real reason, simply put, is the brilliance, money, and deceptive nature of groups such as FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS and the influence that they have exerted on our Republican brothers and sisters in Congress.
The leaders of these groups will tell you that the information that you will receive is part of a “smear-job,” that we are adopting the position of the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center or some other left-leaning organization. Wrong. These are facts. Verifiable, documented facts from dozens of independent sources. Groups like FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS aren’t opposed to immigration reform; they are opposed to human beings living on this planet! These groups want to kill any proposed immigration legislation. These groups want to reduce the number of people on the planet for the sake of the environment, and if they can’t achieve that goal, they want to at least reduce the number of people living in the United States. These groups will stop at nothing in their efforts to reduce the human population including opposing all forms of immigration, promoting sterilization of human beings, and promoting the abortion of the defenseless unborn.
The facts we present to you about the founders of these organizations, the members of the Boards of Directors, and national advisers, as well as some of the conservatives that these groups have been fooling, will prove that these groups cannot be trusted by conservative, pro-life, pro-business Republicans. If you read these facts and still determine that you want to have these groups inform your position on immigration, that’s fine. Politics does make strange bed-fellows after all. But if you are a pro-life and pro-business conservative, then we encourage you to make up your own mind! Let’s solve this immigration mess, but let’s do it on our own terms! With our true friends; friends who share our values!
SPIES IN THE CAMP
PART II - FAIR
FAIR was founded in 1979 by Dr. John Tanton. John Tanton is an admitted environmentalist. In the 1960’s and 70’s Tanton served in high ranking positions in Environmentalist organizations such as The Sierra Club and the Michigan Natural Areas Council. Tanton’s concern for the environment led him to advocate “Family Planning” (a.k.a., ABORTION) as means of population control. From 1965 to 1971 Tanton served as organizer and President of Northern Michigan PLANNED PARENTHOOD. John Tanton’s concern for the environment has also fueled his desire to curb immigration.
Below are the backgrounds of FAIR’s Board of Directors and National Board of Advisors. These are some of FAIR’s most strident environmentalists and abortion advocates:
• Sarah Epstein - serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including Pathfinder International, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, Center for Development and Population Activities and The Population Institute.
• Richard Lamm – Former Governor of Colorado; Drafted the nation’s first liberalized abortion law. Lamm was an early leader in the environmental movement.
• Gerda Bikales – a member of the Advisory Board for Tanton’s The Social Contract where she argues the dangers of overpopulation.
• Dorothy R. Blair – Deceased. Longtime member of FAIR’s National Board of Advisors and a co-founder of the Planned Parenthood Chapter in Naples, FL.
• J. Bayard Boyle, Jr. – serves on the board of directors of Pathfinder International, a reproductive health organization that advocates abortion.
• Torrey C. Brown – former CEO and current chair of Family Health International, an organization that advocates abortion in underdeveloped regions.
• Donald Collins – advocates family planning as means of controlling climate change.
• Cliff Colwell M.D. – on the board of Tanton’s Pro English organization and a donor to Planned Parenthood.
• Jane S. DeLung – Former FAIR Advisor. Served as president of Population Resource Center, for nearly twenty years. She served as vice-president of Illinois Family Planning Council, an organization that provides funding to Planned Parenthood Association/Chicago Area.
• Bonnie Erbe – a PBS journalist & abortion advocate; author of an article entitled “In a Recession, Abortions Are Not a Bad Choice.”
• Robert Gillespie – president of Population Connection; he began his career in 1962 with the pro-abortion group Pathfinder Fund (now Pathfinder International).
• Otis W. Graham – on the board of directors for Californians For Population Stabilization (CAPS), a split-off of Zero Population Growth (now known as Population Connection). CAPS advocates universal access to family planning in California.
• Diana Hull – former president of Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS). Hull is quoted as saying “Human overpopulation is the fundamental environmental problem.”
Is FAIR Really Playing the GOP for a Bunch of Suckers?
“In a 2001 letter by Tanton [...] he laid out his idea to ‘move the battle lines on the immigration question in our favor’ by convincing Republican lawmakers that ‘massive immigration imperils their political future.’ The goal, he wrote, was to ‘change Republicans’ perception of immigration so that when they encounter the word “immigrant,” their reaction is “Democrat.”’ Organizers of the campaign against the [anti-immigration] groups found the letter at the University of Michigan’s Bentley Historical Library, which houses Tanton’s papers.” (Peter Wallsten, the Washington Post)
SPIES IN THE CAMP
PART III – Numbers USA
FAIR has been successful in manipulating the masses by creating spin-off groups such as NumbersUSA and The Center for Immigration Studies (“CIS”). Most people are unaware of the ties between John Tanton and NumbersUSA’s leader, Roy Beck. However, it was John Tanton’s non-profit organization, US Inc. that spawned NumbersUSA.
• Despite being the Washington, DC, editor of John Tanton’s The Social Contract Press, Roy Beck, founder of NumbersUSA, denies any strong connection to Tanton and Tanton’s brand of population control environmentalism. However, Beck showed his true colors when, in May 2000, he co-authored a paper entitled The Environmental Movement’s Retreat from Advocating U.S. Population Stabilization (1970–1998): A First Draft of History, in which Beck advocates “family planning”.
• In fact, since 2002, Roy Beck has been actively distancing himself from Tanton and FAIR in an effort to gain credibility.
• Both FAIR and NumbersUSA have been successful in pretending to share the values of the conservative movement, playing on immigration fears, in order to co-opt conservatives to adopt the FAIR and NumbersUSA stance on immigration – all the while never revealing the true agendas of the two groups’ founders – agendas which are tied to environmental sustainability through population control.
Is NumbersUSA Really Playing the GOP for a Bunch of Suckers?
The anti-immigration group “Protect Texas” has bought into NumbersUSA’s agenda. While claiming to be made up of Grassroots Conservatives, Protect Texas has been spreading NumbersUSA and CIS propaganda on social media websites, as shown in the following image.
Protect Texas, an anti-immigration group with plans to oppose immigration reform at the 2014 Republican Party of Texas State Convention, routinely spreads NumbersUSA and CIS propaganda.
SPIES IN THE CAMP
PART IV - CIS
“For credibility, [CIS] will need to be independent of FAIR, though the Center for Immigration Studies, as we’re calling it, is starting off as a project of FAIR.” (John Tanton, letter to Cordelia Scaife)
Below are the backgrounds of CIS’s Principals and Directors. These are some of CIS’s most strident environmentalists, liberal Democrats, and abortion advocates.
Mark Krikorian, Executive Director.
Mr. Krikorian is the current executive director of CIS. Before joining CIS, Krikorian worked for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). True to Tanton’s plan to create distance between FAIR and CIS, Krikorian said this:
“The center [CIS] has no views on population control, no views on China’s one child policy, or anything else. The guy you mentioned, John Tanton, he’s an eye doctor or retired doctor, he helped arrange our first grant, he’s a population guy, Malthusian in a lot of ways, has never been on our board, doesn’t know where our offices are, never told or had any hand in the opinions, development, or views of the research of the center in any way. I met him a couple times and he seems like an affable enough guy, but what do I know, and what do I care.”
Peter Nunez, Chairman of the Board of Directors.
Peter Nunez is the chairman of CIS’ board of directors, on FAIR’s advisory board, and the former vice-chair of the Alliance for a Sustainable America (AS-USA), which seeks to protect the environment by limiting the human population through promoting replacement level fertility and a moratorium on all immigration.
Vernon M. Briggs, Jr., Board Member.
Mr. Briggs is a pro-Union academic. In a 2006 interview with John Tanton’s The Social Contract Press, Mr. Briggs stated “I consider myself to be a liberal Democrat.”
Frank Morris, Sr., Board Member
Mr. Morris is the former Chairman of the Board member of Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America, now AS-USA which is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to the education of the media, policymakers and the public about the impact of population and immigration. In addition, Mr. Morris is a supporter of SUSPS, which is a network of Sierra Club activists who support a comprehensive approach to environmentalism within the Sierra Club. “We support Sierra Club policies and principles with the exception of current Sierra Club U.S. population policy, which we believe is inadequate in addressing U.S. overpopulation.”
George W. Grayson, Board Member
Grayson is a former Liberal Democratic member of the Virginia State Legislature. He is a member of the Sierra Club and the Nature Conservancy. Grayson is pro-choice and has stated that he would prefer abortions to continue, even if Roe v. Wade were overturned.
Thomas C.T. Brokaw, Board Member.
Thomas C.T. Brokaw on CIS’ board of directors is the chair of INFORM and a former board member of the Defenders of Wildlife (DW). INFORM is an organization that seeks to “educate the public about the effects of human activity on the environment and human health” through producing short films for the public. DW ran attack ads against Republican candidates in Colorado and New Mexico.[xv] DW is a well-known left-wing organization that endorses democrats 97% of the time. Brokaw has also contributed $45,000 to the League of Conservation Voters.
Jan C. Ting, Board Member.
Mr. Ting is a Professor of Law at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the Republican candidate for U.S. Senator from Delaware in the 2006 U.S. Senate election, but two years later Ting left the Republican Party in a dispute over his endorsement of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. During the 2008 general election he was discovered to have contributed to Barack Obama for president, observed attending a rally for Obama, and when asked, cited his concerns about John McCain's immigration policy and support for the Iraq War.
Is CIS Really Playing the GOP for a Bunch of Suckers?
CIS Executive Director, Mark Krikorian, has been very successful in influencing conservative thinkers. Most prominently, Krikorian preaches CIS’s radical population control philosophy on the Conservative news and commentary website, National Review Online.
SPIES IN THE CAMP
PART V – Show Me The Money!
“Heiress and bird-lover Cordelia Scaife May believed nature and the U.S. were under siege from runaway population growth. Eight years after her death, she continues to influence the immigration debate.” (Joseph Tanfini, L.A. Times)
What do FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS all have in common (besides John Tanton and Board Members made up of population-control environmentalists, of course)? The answer is: MONEY! IRS records show that in 2010, one charitable foundation with roots in extreme environmentalism and population control, the Colcom Foundation, contributed over $7.1 million to these organizations.
The Colcom Foundation was established in 1996 by the late Cordelia Scaife May, a “dedicated conservationist” concerned about “the negative effects of human overpopulation on the environment.” Among the other groups the Colcom funds are Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS); the Clean Air Council; the Clean Water Fund; the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund; the Population Media Center; and U.S., Inc., a non-profit organization founded by John Tanton, used to house and raise money for Roy Beck and NumbersUSA shortly after NumbersUSA was created.
It’s not surprising given Cordelia Scaife May’s ideology that she chose to fund groups headed by population fearing and abortion promoting environmentalists. As the Los Angeles Times points out, Scaife May’s biggest “... worry in life, almost, was population control.” This is why, in 2010, Scaife May’s trusts distributed over $6.5 million to Colcom. This money, in part, was then used to fuel the radical agendas of FAIR, CIS, and NumbersUSA, with NumbersUSA as the largest single recipient of Colcom’s generosity in 2010. That year, NumbersUSA received over $3 million from Colcom while FAIR received just over $2.7 million. CIS made out big as well, receiving over $1.3 million from Colcom.
Even in death, Scaife May’s ties to these groups just don’t stop at the bank. In the Fall 2012 edition of The Human Life Review, the premier scholarly journal on pro-life issues, author Mario Lopez exposes another link between the Scaife family radicalism and FAIR. Lopez writes:
"Sarah G. Epstein, FAIR’s board secretary, is an emeritus director and board member of Pathfinder International in the U.S. She inherited the position from her parents: Clarence and Sarah Gamble. She is also a board member of the Scaife Family Foundation (SFF), which is engaged with Pathfinder in conducting trials of the quinacrine sterilization procedure."
According to the LA Times article, “ Colcom Foundation has been the single-largest donor to the anti-immigration cause, providing more than $76 million over the last decade to groups that now are fighting to block immigration overhaul efforts in Congress.”
You have now seen evidence of the radical environmentalist agendas of these groups. You’ve seen the pro-abortion, population control, environmentally motivated beliefs of the founders of these groups. You have seen the radical affiliations of the members and directors of these groups. And, you have seen just a few examples of the influence these groups have had within the GOP.
We urge you to ask yourselves why these groups are adamant about opposing any type of immigration legislation whatsoever. These groups not only oppose “amnesty,” they oppose any reform to the immigration system which would allow even one more person to enter the country and violate “Mother Earth.” These groups will tell you anything to make you oppose any form of immigration reform. They will tell you that it is the business community that wants the immigration bill. They will say that business wants cheap labor and that if business wants to find American born laborers to fill the jobs that they are hiring immigrants to fill, then business leaders simply need to raise their wages.
However, as pro-business conservatives, we know that added costs to business mean fewer jobs. It means less innovation and less entrepreneurship. Why is it that we are willing to stand up to radical leftists when it’s Obama, but are willing to go along with business killing ideas when the radical leftist is a pro-abortion, anti-immigrant environmentalist? As conservatives, we should always stand up for the unborn and for free-market principles.
Over the past few days you’ve seen the types of people these are. You’ve seen their motivation and you’ve seen their agendas. I urge you to take a moment and decide where your humanity lies. I urge you to consider your promise to the unborn. Yes, illegal immigration is a huge problem. But let us find a solution in our humanity and let us not betray our better angels for well-funded “friends” with hidden agendas who seem to hit all of the right notes at exactly the right time.
Don’t be played for a sucker by radical pro-choice environmentalists. Groups like FAIR, NumbersUSA, and CIS aren’t opposed to immigration reform; they are opposed to human beings living on this planet! Consider the facts, pray, and make up your own mind.
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