Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream
Groups:
You Don’t Speak for Me
FAIR-Cultivated Offshoots To both broaden the demographic of its movement and cultivate a grassroots following, the Washington D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), has created front groups that work together, often in concert with vigilante groups, to broadcast a xenophobic message. At the same time, the groups serve as a defense against charges of racism.
You Don’t Speak for Me In May 2006, the Washington D.C.-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) “was proud to help launch” a group called You Don’t Speak for Me (YDSFM), which claims to be a “coalition of Americans of Hispanic descent who believe that this nation must enforce its immigration laws in order to protect the security and interest of all citizens.” Though FAIR does not characterize itself as a direct founder of YDSFM, the two groups share a spokesperson and in June 2006, YDSFM leader Miguel Cruz (who has since become a New Jersey-based YDSFM executive director) told The Record, a New Jersey newspaper, that “the coalition [YDSFM] is FAIR’s creation, it’s their mission…” YDSFM Chairman Al Rodriguez sits on FAIR’s National Board of Advisors.
YDSFM members speak at anti-immigrant events across the country, alongside border vigilante activists and anti-immigration figures. During an anti-immigration rally in New Jersey in July 2007, YDSFM Vice Chairman Carmen Morales proclaimed, “We are standing here, a group of Americans of all ethnicity [sic] to defend the USA [against] this huge invasion and the Reconquista!” Morales continued, “I have never seen such disarray, chaos, and so much worthless crime in this country before. Of course we have our own criminals, but do we need more from foreign countries? I don’t think so. People, we are headed towards a third world overpopulated country with no rule of law whatsoever. We are turning into what these illegal aliens left behind, so could you imagine?…Terrorists, criminals, and all kinds of people who hate Americans from around the world were crossing the border into the United States, unbeknownst to us.”
YDSFM has ties to the border vigilante Minuteman organization. TheMinutemenare a loose network of local chapters around the country, whose primary goal is to keep undocumented immigrants from Mexico out of the United States. The more extreme Minutemen chapters advocate patrols of the Mexican-American border by armed volunteers.
Rosanna Pulido serves as both the YDSFM Illinois spokeswoman and state director of the Illinois Minuteman Project. Lupe Moreno, a prominent member of YDSFM, calls herself “one of the original Minutewomen.” During a June 2007 fundraiser for U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo* (R-CO), Moreno discussed “going out with [Minuteman leader] Jim Gilchristto the Naco [Arizona] border to defend this nation,” referencing her participation in the April 2005 Minuteman Project. Moreno’s fellow speakers at the fundraiser included Los Angeles Minuteman leader Tony Dolz and Jeff Schwilk, leader of the more extreme San Diego Minuteman faction. YDSFM’s Arizona point of contact Anna Gaines is also a member of the Minutemen, according to Minuteman leader Chris Simcox.
Choose Black America (CBA), another anti-immigration group founded by FAIR in May 2006, and YDSFM co-organize events. On the grassroots level, the groups’ events attract Minuteman attendance and support.
In June 2007, CBA and YDSFM held a joint press conference at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. That same month, the Los Angeles Chapter of CBA and YDSFM co-sponsored a “Civil Rights March and Rally” in conjunction with other anti-immigration groups, according to a flier released by the Crispus Attucks Brigade, a CBA subsidiary group. The mission of the event was to “Retrieve…Our National Birth Right NOW From Citizens of Foreign Nations Illegally Within Ours.” In March 2007, the Crispus Attucks Brigade, the Minuteman Project, YDSFM and other anti-immigrant groups formed a “coalition” and sponsored a “Civil Rights March.” A Crispus Attucks Brigade’s flier about the march included the group’s demand for “protection of Black US Citizens From Ethnic Cleansing By Latinos, Europeans, Asians, Africans, & Others Invading and Illegally Colonizing Our Country.” During the event, CBA leader Ted Hayes shared the stage with YDSFM leader Al Rodriguez.
Featured Video: "ProAmerica Rally on Morristown NJ (part IV)"
This video, shared on YouTube, presents You Don’t Speak for Me member Carmen Morales’s July 2007 speech at an anti-immigration rally in Morristown, New Jersey, in support of the town mayor’s restrictive proposal on undocumented immigrants.
Please click on minutes 3:42- 2:55 for highlights of Carmen Morales’s speech.
*ADL takes no position in favor of, or in opposition to, candidates running for office, including Representative Tancredo.
YDSFM members speak at anti-immigrant events across the country, alongside border vigilante activists and anti-immigration figures. During an anti-immigration rally in New Jersey in July 2007, YDSFM Vice Chairman Carmen Morales proclaimed, “We are standing here, a group of Americans of all ethnicity [sic] to defend the USA [against] this huge invasion and the Reconquista!” Morales continued, “I have never seen such disarray, chaos, and so much worthless crime in this country before. Of course we have our own criminals, but do we need more from foreign countries? I don’t think so. People, we are headed towards a third world overpopulated country with no rule of law whatsoever. We are turning into what these illegal aliens left behind, so could you imagine?…Terrorists, criminals, and all kinds of people who hate Americans from around the world were crossing the border into the United States, unbeknownst to us.”
