2005 marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Immigration Act of 1965, a cornerstone of Civil Rights legislation, along with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. Reflecting the spirit of the times, the Act was crafted as a corrective to the nation’s history of racism and discrimination in immigration. It removed barriers based on national origin, and measures favoring immigrants from Western European countries. It also opened the door to more diverse patterns of immigration.
 
Forty years later, those changes and the Civil Rights tradition are under attack. Anti-immigrant sentiment is sweeping the country like wildfire. Stoked by political successes in Arizona and Washington, D.C. and fanned by national and grassroots anti-immigrant groups, nativism has moved from the margins to the mainstream.

Congressional passage of the REAL ID Act was the latest success for anti-immigrant groups. Emboldened, some in Congress have introduced legislation that would deny citizenship to children born of undocumented parents in the United States. Only a new and dramatically different reading of the Fourteenth Amendment—the foundation of much of our Civil Rights legislation—would permit such a statute to be considered constitutional.

Beyond the Beltway, the problem is sweeping through local communities and state legislatures at an alarming pace. In the first half of 2005, more than 150 pieces of anti-immigrant legislation were introduced in thirty different states.

Legislation that would prohibit access to state services and increase impediments to voting, modeled on Arizona’s controversial Proposition 200, passed in Virginia. Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Georgia, North Carolina, and Tennessee are expected to see similar bills next session.

Though this year also marks the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, serious attacks on voting rights are being mounted in many states, fueled by anti-immigrant rhetoric and unsubstantiated charges of voter fraud.  Legislation requiring proof of citizenship at the time of voter registration, or even more stringent proof of identity at voting—a component of Proposition 200—has been introduced in seventeen states.  A dozen states, including California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Washington could have ballot initiatives modeled on Proposition 200 in 2006.

The growing surge in anti-immigrant activity did not occur spontaneously.  What started with a single group over a quarter century ago has grown into a network of more than a dozen national organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), American Immigration Control (AIC), ProjectUSA, NumbersUSA, and the Center for Immigration Studies. Together the national groups have combined annual budgets of nearly $15 million and an active donor base of 600,000 - 750,000.

Their influence extends well beyond their dollars and their donor base, however. They have succeeded in building both a grassroots base and significant political support. Current fears—such as security concerns in the post-9/11 world, economic strains on state and local governments, and an unsteady job market—have been used successfully by anti-immigrant organizations to galvanize support for their agenda.

Moreover, the national organizations have helped spark state/local groups in as many as forty states. They have provided financial support, training, materials, and direction to many of these local groups, drafted anti-immigrant legislation, and provided supporting testimony and political pressure to get these bills passed.

Across the country immigrant and refugees rights organizations are also under attack from anti-immigrant groups. In North Carolina, for example, after helping introduce bi-partisan legislation to provide in-state tuition rates to the children of undocumented workers, El Pueblo, the statewide immigrant rights group began receiving threats.  And within days of introducing the legislation, significant co-sponsorship in the legislature evaporated.  

The rise of the “Minutemen” is, of course, the most dramatic example of the changing anti-immigrant landscape.  From a relatively small band of aging, pseudo-vigilantes on the Arizona and New Mexico border, Minutemen are organizing a muscular force well into the interior—in Tennessee, Washington, Illinois, and at least a dozen other states.  They were welcomed by Congressional leaders last spring on the heels of their early border actions, and media coverage of their activities has been glamorous and widespread.  In shape, form, composition, and ideology, however, Minutemen are largely the mirror image of the militias of the mid-1990s, with a similar goal—maintaining the power of whites in America.

But more insidious than the Minutemen is the rapid spread of anti-immigrant fervor in the cultural and political mainstream. The controversy over immigration is deeply impacting both political parties. Business interests intent on maintaining the flow of low-wage labor are pitted against racially-motivated conservatives.  Antagonism is being stirred in African American communities against Hispanics.  Anti-immigrant Congressional leaders are already positioning the issue for the Presidential race of 2008.  

A Growing Response to the Backlash

Across the country, responses to anti-immigrant activity are growing, spreading, and deepening, as portrayed in the following examples.

Kansas

In response to FAIR’s legal challenge to the successful passage of the Kansas Dream Act, providing equitable access to higher education to immigrant students, El Centro and its allies built strong statewide support for and won a major legal victory that will likely undercut further such anti-immigrant challenges in states across the nation.  In July Judge Richard Rogers dismissed FAIR’s lawsuit, ruling that the organization and its out-of-state plaintiffs “had no standing to sue because they are in no way injured by instate tuition laws that facilitate immigrants’ access to higher education,” according to El Centro’s Melinda Lewis. “In this first federal court challenge of instate tuition laws, FAIR's well-funded legal battle and years of planning were utterly unsuccessful,” Lewis wrote. “Their strategy of challenging laws in other states has been demolished.”

Arizona

In the spring of 2005 Arizona community organizations demanded prosecution of the Federation for America Immigration Reform (FAIR) by the state’s Attorney General for violations of the Arizona Campaign Finance Law.  In their press release at the time, Isabel Garcia, Co-chair of Derechos Humanos, stated that “The fact that they come into our state, our communities, ignoring and violating state laws in the interest of serving their own hateful agenda, is unacceptable.”  Derechos Humanos/Alianza Indígena Sin Fronteras, AFL-CIO, PCIC, Defeat 200, No More Deaths, Fundación México, LULAC Far West Region, and allied organizations also “called on all people of conscience to stand together to denounce the tactics and activities of FAIR... and to urge Congressional leaders to stand firm against divisive proposals that only serve to promote hatred in our communities.”

Washington

In July the Social Justice Fund, Western States Center, and the Center for New Community sponsored a public forum and training on the newly filed Washington State anti-immigrant Initiative I-343. The event was attended by some 75 leaders from over 40 co-sponsoring organizations from across the entire state. Soya Jung Harris, grants and program director at Social Justice Fund Northwest in Seattle, was cited in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer story on the forum as saying that the initiative campaign is "being driven by a deeply cynical anti-immigrant movement that's working to divide our nation along racial and ethnic lines.”  As a result of the forum, these and other Washington groups are already organizing a state coalition to oppose I-343, with their early action signaling a serious response to the anticipated ballot initiative.

Tennessee/Highlander

In August community organizers from twenty organizations came together outside Knoxville, Tennessee at the behest of  Highlander Center, and met for two days to collaborate and plan strategies to counter anti-immigrant activity, with a key focus on Minutemen activity. 

The Center for New Community is a national organization based in Chicago and committed to building community, justice, and equality.  Its work to counter the anti-immigrant movement is a core commitment of its Building Democracy Initiative, and is being carried out in partnership with groups across the nation.