WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. immigration advocates say they are dropping their measured responses to conservative activists by publicizing their alleged links to white supremacists.
In a change of tactics, America's Voice, an umbrella group of immigrant advocate organizations, is organizing a conference call with reporters and has purchased an ad in the Washington newspaper Roll Call to call attention to reports linking the founder of the prominent anti-immigration lobbying organization The Federation for American Immigration Reform to hate groups, The Washington Post reported Monday.
"The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is designated a HATE GROUP by the Southern Poverty Law Center," the ad reads, referring to an independent U.S. group that monitors racist organizations. "Extremist groups, like FAIR, shouldn't write immigration policy."
Pro-immigration groups have been largely silent in countering criticism from right-wing lobbyists in previous immigration reform efforts, but a new push to defeat healthcare reform proposals by linking them to illegal immigrants has persuaded the group to fire back, the newspaper said.
"We didn't call it out last time, we thought we were in a political debate," Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, told the Post. "Now we realize it's part political debate and ... part culture war."
