Matt Lewis writes at the Daily Caller about a memo that Mark Zuckerberg's group FWD.us is distributing to Congress to try to make immigration patriot groups radioactive:
What makes it interesting, to me, at least, is that the memo (which is titled, “Summary Background Memo on Broad Support for Immigration Reform”) also includes a section (starting on page 18) on ‘The Shocking Extremism Behind Anti-Immigrant Groups.’
It includes links to various stories, such as this one from the Wall Street Journal, which notes that:
“CIS, FAIR, NumbersUSA, Project-USA — and more than a half-dozen similar groups that Republicans have become disturbingly comfy with — were founded or funded (or both) by John Tanton, a retired doctor in Michigan. In addition to trying to stop immigration to the U.S., appropriate population-control measures for Dr. Tanton and his network include promoting China’s one-child policy, sterilizing Third World women and wider use of RU-486.”
A spokesperson for FWD.us confirms the memo “has gone to all House member offices (both Rs + Ds) today – of course including all members at the retreat” — and that it includes “factual information…about the origins and real motivations of some of the loudest anti-immigrant groups.”
You can read the memo below.
The words "by Matt Lewis" above just means that he posted it himself on the website, not that it's actually by him, but it might as well be.
He's certainly promoting it uncritically. We've seen a lot of Matt Lewis [Email him] on this debate. See Exposing Matt Lewis’ Pro-Mass Immigration “Motives and Canards” By James Kirkpatrick.
The Daily Caller has a very good immigration reporter in Neil Munro, and a very bad one in Lewis. The problem is that the editor of the Daily Caller thinks like Lewis, and may fire Munro at any time.
When you get inside the document, you find that the Zucks are smearing FAIR's Dan Stein for being connected (formerly) to Dr. Tanton, and having raised money (formerly) from the Pioneer Fund.
They're also smearing CIS's Mark Krikorian for having said something about Haiti. Anything you say about Haiti, no matter how true it is, is a gaffe.
The funny thing about this is that both Stein and Krikorian have take pains to distance themselves from anything that might be considered "radical", including Dr. Tanton. However, this triangulation has done them absolutely no good.
What they should do is refuse to apologize for anything, and instead counterattack, attacking the enemies motives.
I went to some trouble a while back to lay out how much "uglier" the roots of pro-immigration "extremism" are than anything NumbersUSA, CIS, or even VDARE.com (where we try to be a little edgy) has ever been involved in—see Communism, Socialism, Cultural Marxism, Democratic Hegemonists, Crony Capitalism, Ethnic Agendas, Treason Etc.—The “Ugly Roots” Of Immigration Enthusiasm
Surely, for example, the fact that this latest smear is being funded now by a billionaire employer of cheap foreign labor is more notable than the fact that Dr. Tanton, a retired ophthalmologist, helped organize some organizations whose position on immigration is not extreme, because it's supported by a majority of non-billionaire voters.
