The New Border Czar Connected to a Racist Group

 

I don’t usually write political posts, at least not intentionally, but as David French states two important acts in times like this is to care for the vulnerable and speak the truth. Two days ago I posted a small piece on caring for immigrants. In that posting I linked to an earlier post I wrote in 2016, The Federation of American Immigration Reform: abortion & population control merges with anti-immigration. In my posting I linked to an article written by the hate-watch group the Southern Poverty Law Center about the Federation of American Immigration Reform (Fair). I pointed out that immigration group began as an anti-population, pro-abortion and pro-eugenics group. It was racist at its core. It still is.

Here are some quotes from a SPLC paper on the racist’s statements and actions of FAIR’s past founder, John Tanton, and present president Dan Stein:

“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?” – John Tanton, letter to eugenicist Robert K. Graham (now deceased), Sept. 18, 1996

“I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” – John Tanton, letter to eugenicist and ecology professor Garrett Hardin (now deceased), Dec. 10, 1993”

“I blame ninety-eight percent of responsibility for this country’s immigration crisis on Ted Kennedy and his political allies, who decided some time back in 1958, earlier perhaps, that immigration was a great way to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance and hubris, and the immigration laws from the 1920s were just this symbol of that, and it’s a form of revengism, or revenge, that these forces continue to push the immigration policy that they know full well are [sic] creating chaos and will continue to create chaos down the line.” – FAIR President Dan Stein”

Today I read the whole article about FAIR written by the SPCL. I may have read it all before but I don’t remember. Toward the end of SPLC’s article they write about some of the people who were connected to FAIR and were then in the 2016 Trump administration. A man, Tom Homan, who was the 2016 head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now in Trump’s new 2025 administration as the border czar. His connection to FAIR was as a senior fellow in their legal department.

The problem with too many of these new candidates for various positions in the coming administration is their connection to racist groups. Tied to this is their own racists actions because of those connections. Their viewpoint is not layered with any kind of mercy, thoughtfulness, generosity or as Karen Swallow Prior would say imagination. How do you tend to the needy, even the illegal needy. They are not all the same, they are not all equally guilty. Some are children, some are frightened like children.