Conservatives Against Unconstitutional Laws Costing Millions in Tax Payer Dollars
Who is behind these unconstitutional laws?
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is an anti-immigration ‘movement,’ that began by one man, John Tanton. Tanton was the organizer and President of the Northern Michigan Planned Parenthood Association between 1965-1971, and in 1975 he wrote The Case for Passive Eugenics where his letters and memos are a public collection at the Bentley Historical Library. (1) Tanton has clear connections to Pioneer Fund and Numbers USA where Pioneer Fund’s eugenic ideas (selective breeding of humans) supported a variety of institutions that legitimize race “science”, including the journal Mankind Quarterly, which today is published by long-time eugenicist, anti-Semite and Pioneer grant recipient Roger Pearson. (2) According to the Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley states that by Dr. Tanton’s own reckoning, FAIR has received more than $1.5 million from the Pioneer Fund, a white-supremacist outfit devoted to racial purity through eugenics. Board members of FAIR actively promote the sterilization of Third World women for the purposes of reducing U.S. immigration prospects. And if anything disturbs the good doctor more than those Latin American hordes crossing the Rio Grande, it’s the likelihood that most of them are Catholic, or so he once told a Reuters reporter. (3) As the founder and publisher of Social Contract Press, Tanton has published books that have helped shaped a nationalist ideology focused on the threat of immigrants to the white…while ignoring research that points to the positive contributions of immigrants. (4)
How much are these unconstitutional laws costing the American Tax payer?
It is imperative that we recognize the fiscal burdens created by anti-immigrant legislation in many states which are promoted by the Federation of Americans for Immigration Reform (FAIR) and their attorney, Kris Kobach, who introduced these unconstitutional laws. Lawsuits filed and drafted by attorney, Kris Kobach, have not survived the federal court system, but instead FAIR and Kobach have burdened states, already in extreme fiscal distress, with costly legal fees.
Laws like SB1070 in Arizona, Prop 187 in California, the repeal of “in-state tuitions” in California and Nebraska have failed and left and states in even greater financial hardship caused by needless legal battles. Thanks to these bills, produced by FAIR, these communities have been subjected to multiple legal challenges and have devoted precious resources to defend laws that have so many serious constitutional flaws they will likely never be implemented.
California faced this circumstance 15 years ago when Gov. Pete Wilson championed Prop 187. According to Thomas Saenz, President of Mexican-American Educational Fund, California paid a lot of state lawyers to defend these suits and the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees as well. They also had to divert bureaucrats throughout state government, from their other tasks, to analyze and plan how to implement a law that could never be implemented. Thus, California wasted tens of millions of dollars expended in vain defending the un-constitutional Proposition 187.
Coincidentally, Arizona’s SB 1070, also authored by Kris Kobach, has many of the same constitutional flaws as California’s Proposition 187, and lawyers defending it have spent more than $1 million since Gov. Jan Brewer signed the un-constitutional bill into law. As federal Judge Susan Bolton blocked its most controversial provisions on July 28, finding them unconstitutional, her ruling will, likely, be upheld in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. As the state pays these legal fees the cost would come down to the tax payer leaving communities under even greater fiscal stress.
FAIR and Kris Kobach have also attempted to repeal “in-state tuition” for undocumented students which un-constitutionally places all students under unnecessary scrutiny. This has crowded the docket of both the California and Nebraska State Supreme Court and wasted countless tax payer dollars in the process. On Nov 15, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that undocumented immigrants may continue to pay the lower “in-state fees” at public colleges and universities and this does not violate any federal law.
A month later the Nebraska Supreme Court also ruled against a similar lawsuit filed by Mr. Kobach when he wanted to reverse a state law that allowed undocumented immigrants to pay “in-state tuition”. Again, needless costs to taxpayers in states so misguided as to listen to the policy advice of Kris Kobach and FAIR. Nebraska is not a liberal state, yet the Nebraska State Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit because immigration is, constitutionally, an exclusive federal matter. In another example, Hazleton, Pennsylvania spent about $2.4 million in legal fees defending an immigration enforcement ordinance, also drafted by Mr. Kobach, by the time the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled it unconstitutional.
FAIR and Kris Kobach are not “conservative”
FAIR purports to be “conservative” but its founder and some of its board members have been deeply involved with Planned Parenthood for decades. In fact, FAIR is a contributor to Planned Parenthood that openly provides for abortions in minority communities across the nation. Furthermore, FAIR has no respect for states’ rights as they seek to impose unconstitutional laws on states and strain their budgets defending indefensible laws.
Conclusion
FAIR and Kris Kobach have needlessly cost taxpayers in states and small communities across the nation millions of dollars. They do not support the Constitution. They are not Pro-Life. They are not conservative. There is a better way, a constitutional way, and we, at Somos Republicans, are leading the way. Bills written by FAIR are both unconstitutional and costly — There is a better way!
(1) University of Michigan Libary – Bentley Historical Library research of John Tanton papers (1960-2007). http://mirlyn-classic.lib.umich.edu/F/?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&local_base=bent_pub&request=tanton
(2) Pioneer Fund. Southern Poverty Law Center. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/groups/pioneer-fund
(3) The Wall Street Journal. GOP Nativists Tarnish Reagan’s ‘Shining City’ by Jason Riley. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB107931059351255105,00.html?mod=opinion_main_commentaries
(4) John Tanton – Right Web Profile and Institute for Policy Studies. http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/Tanton_John
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