July 6, 2006

MEDIA RELEASE

For immediate release

For additional information, contact Devin Burghart 312-266-0319

CHICAGO (July 6, 2006) – Following the money and the personnel, a new investigative report by the Center for New Community has uncovered the close ties between the proponents of a Colorado anti-immigration ballot measure and extreme national nativist groups.

According to the report, Defend Colorado Now (DCN) is lead by long-time anti-immigrant activists with deep connections to controversial national groups.

Defend Colorado Now President Fred Elbel wrote these words in a 2004 email defending his failed efforts to place anti-immigration candidates on the national Sierra Club board:

"Damned right. I hate 'em all - negroes, wasps, spics, eskimos, jews, honkies, krauts, ruskies, ethopans, pakis, hunkies, pollocks and marxists; there are way too many of them. I'm all for trout, elephants, bacteria, whales, wolves, birds, parrot fish, deciduous foliage and mollusks. Time to rebalance the planet, bleeding heart liberals be damned. [sic]"

In addition to his work with DCN, Elbel is the webmaster for twenty different anti-immigrant organizations.

 Another DCN leader, former CO Governor Richard Lamm has been involved with two different anti-immigration organizations that have received funding from a white supremacist foundation that promotes eugenics and white racial superiority.

The report also reveals that the largest single contributor to the group Defend Colorado Now is a shadowy anti-immigrant foundation from Michigan run by the grandfather of the modern nativist movement, John Tanton. The foundation, U.S. Inc, has contributed $48,000 to the campaign to date.

According to the report, Tanton, the head of U.S. Inc. once wrote, “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? Why don’t non-Hispanic Whites have a group identity, as do Blacks, Jews, Hispanics?” U.S. Inc. is also the umbrella for The Social Contract Press, whose editor, Wayne Lutton, is an ardent white nationalist.

You can view the complete report at www.buildingdemocracy.org.

The report is also available in pdf format here -http://www.buildingdemocracy.org/reports/defendcoloradonow.pdf

 Rev. David Ostendorf, the Center’s director said, “Defend Colorado Now’s relationships with these controversial nativist groups raise serious moral and ethical issues. These disturbing findings call into question the relationship that DCN has established in mainstream Colorado politics.”

“Everyone in Colorado should be concerned about such extreme groups moving from the margins to the mainstream,” said CNC field director Eric Ward. “Colorado is too great for such hate.”

The Center for New Community, now in its eleventh year, is a national, faith-based organization dedicated to building community, justice, and equality. The Center is grounded in many faith traditions, and builds community where the dignity and value of all humanity is manifest.

###