NCLR Responds to Hate Group

February 6th, 2009

Clarissa Martinez De Castro, Director of Immigration and National Campaigns for the National Council of La Raza, issued a blowback response to Ira Mehlman's February 2 Los Angeles Times op-ed article, "Priorities of immigration advocates are out of step."  She writes, "At the height of his hubris, Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)-an anti-immigrant organization designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center-decided that he is better qualified than Latino civil rights leaders to speak to Latino views.  What's next, David Duke writing about African American views on affirmative action?"

Martinez continues, "No one should be surprised to find the economy, education, and health care at the top of Latino voters' priorities.  The economy and education, through the years, have always been at the top of that list.  What Mehlman and others continue to misrepresent is the galvanizing effect the issue of immigration has on Latino participation.  It's not complicated:  Latinos understand that when the immigration debate turns negative, it affects the whole community regardless of immigration status.  Coinciding with the rise in vitriol in the immigration debate, FBI statistics show a nearly 40% increase in hate crimes committed against Latinos between 2003 and 2008.  The Southern Poverty Law Center attributes the 48% rise in the number of hate groups in the U.S. between 2000 and 2007 almost completely to anti-immigrant rhetoric...The next time Mehlman decides to chime in, he should stick to discussing what he knows best:  how his group has stood in the way of our nation solving its immigration problem."

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