Election 2008: What’s At Stake?

A full-page ad placed in Capitol Hill newspapers has upset the country’s most powerful immigration restrictionist organization, the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The ad, a response to FAIR’s annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” lobbying event, held this week, was paid for by a coalition that includes the SEIU, or Service Employees International Union, and the National Council of La Raza.

The ad portrays FAIR as a hate group, featuring a picture of skinheads and quoting founder John Tanton, “As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?” The ad then asks, “When Did Extreme Become Mainstream?” and offers this Internet address: www.wecanstopthehate.org. You can see the print ad here (PDF) (embeds are not working right now).

It drew this response from FAIR (PDF):

Instead of seeking to promote rational, intelligent, meaningful dialogue on immigration reform, one of the most important issues facing our nation today the ad utterly distorts FAIR’s 30-year record of advocacy on immigration reform and merely parrots previous distortions.