The Texas Freedom Network does not work on immigration issues. But we do monitor the deepening extremism — both in rhetoric and action — on the far right in Texas. So let’s take a closer look at an anti-immigrant group behind a Texas Capitol rally during which a speaker expressed her frustration over the fact that voters have elected Hispanics to the state Legislature. The Immigration and Reform Coalition of Texas (IRCOT) has some interesting policy positions and supporters.
IRCOT appears to base its anti-immigrant positions on what it calls a “Biblical mandate for secure borders.” A number of articles on the group’s website try to make a scriptural case against “illegal immigration” and “high immigration.”
Other articles offer some rather startling statements. In a 2007 essay, for example, the writer declares immigration to be the second most important issue in the United States (after the war in Iraq). Among the reasons listed:
“A dynamic increase in the number of Hispanic voters could shift the balance of power in U.S. politics.”
So is the writer more concerned with illegal immigration or the possibility that Hispanic Americans might gain more political influence? What about IRCOT?
Another article suggests that a solution to the problem of “foreign immigration” to the United States is for people in poorer countries to stop having so many children:
“There is no universal right to procreate. Those individuals and those nations that populate beyond their resources are not owed support by everyone else. Human procreation is not an unavoidable act of nature. It is a choice, and we, as an intelligent species capable of rational judgment, are responsible for our choices.
Those pursuing a direction of guilt along a trail of tears leading away from rationality, remind us that Americans consume far more resources per capita than any people on earth. That mathematical quotient, of course, becomes more pronounced as human populations in the impoverished and mismanaged nations of the world continue to increase. Are Americans expected to retreat to a less affluent lifestyle so that millions, even billions, of additional humans can share a finite planet? What is the benefit of continuing to add more people to an already overtaxed eco-system? And, if America’s higher consumption of resources is a concern, why then import millions of immigrants to America who will then consume more resources than they would have in their native lands?”
We also noted on IRCOT’s website a name TFN Insider readers might remember. One of the group’s financial supporters is Peter Morrison, a right-wing activist in Southeast Texas who sends out a periodic e-newsletter that often peddles racially incendiary rhetoric. Two years ago a State Board of Education member appointed Morrison to serve on a team helping draft new curriculum standards for social studies classes in Texas public schools. Then late last year Morrison helped organize a religious campaign among far-right activists to oust Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, as speaker of the Texas House. Straus is Jewish, and some of his opponents called for the election of a “Christian” and “conservative” speaker. (They failed to defeat Straus.) The Austin-based political news website Quorum Report noted during the anti-Straus campaign that the “white nationalist” hate website VDARE.com has published a number of Morrison’s screeds.
Among the “Texas partners” IRCOT lists on its website is the Texas Eagle Forum. TEF is one of the most intolerant right-wing groups in the state. It promotes extreme anti-Muslim rhetoric, airs arguments against “democracy” and even the direct election of U.S. senators, and appears to believe that the secession of Texas from the United States is something worth considering.
IRCOT, it seems clear, inhabits the fringes of extremist, right-wing politics in Texas. Check out the group’s website yourself.
The inablienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are clearly not on the Tea Party agenda. At the very least procreation is a right to life, and usually involves a fair amount of happiness. One life and happiness are not longer covered, having any liberty goes down with the tea.
Of considerable interest is the return of eugenics, whierein some people are more equal than others depending on race. Adolf Hitler based his Nuremberg Race Laws on the laws of the states of New Jersey and California as it pertains to racial classification and control were concerned.
The state of California tried to convict Harry Bridges head of the Longhshoremans union (ILWU) on miscegnation charges because he was married to a girl of Japanese descent. Your deed restrictions if you live in Texas may have racial prohibitions still in the wording if your property was platted before the Civil Rights Acts.
When you hear the battle cry “take America back!” one should ask tactfully as to what timeframe are you wanting to return to?
Nativist, racist and ignorant. What’s not to like? Sadly the nation is suffused with such people and they have a significant voice in the Republican party. Here’s hoping the rational Republicans, if any remain, will deny them a credible platform.
Jesus, Joseph and Mary.
As in, Jesus, Joseph and Mary couldn’t have fled to Egypt under the rule of this sort.
“There is no universal right to procreate.” I thought the far right loonies were against birth control. ???
The Bible also mandates treating strangers with fairness and hospitality. And yes, Americans should retreat to a less affluent lifestyle so that we can share the planet with other people. The unspoken answer to the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” is “Yes.”
It’s too bad that their acronym is IRCOT. I would drop the C, IROT.
There is a Biblical command to procreate. Anyone ever heard of “be fruitful and multiply”? The Catholics sure have. I would not take those Biblical mandate arguments very seriously because:
1) Anyone can find an odd astronomer that will tell you the world is flat.
2) Most of the mandate people depend on the Old Testament—a covenant that was fulfilled by Jesus and has largely passed away for really serious Christians.
3) Those border orders were directed at Israel specifically because of the unique covenant that God had with Israel and the commands for the Jewish people to remain separate from other nations. The United States is not ancient Israel, and God did not make a special covenant with the United States to exclude Hispanic peoples from our borders.
4) One can twist and cherry-pick verses in the Bible to support all sorts of dastardly human actions, and it appears to me that these people have done it.
5) Keep your minds, eyes, and hearts on the actions and sayings of Jesus in the New Testament ONLY to chart a true course. Anything less runs the risk of smelling like an Indonesian seafood market. I think the so-called “liberal pastors” have taken that course with illegal immigration.
6) Just to reiterate a point made by me many times on TFN Insider. These so-called “illegal” Hispanic immigrants for the most part have red copper skin, black hair, a form of epicanthic eyefold, high/prominent zygomatic arches, and shovel-shaped incisors. Why is that? Because most of them are full-blooded or nearly full-blooded American Indians whose ancestors were Aztecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Olmecs, Mayans, etc. Their ancestors had the first title on this land, and American archaeology has clearly and unequivocally shown that they were the original title holders—because there was nobody else here before them except the dinosaurs, buffalo, and jack rabbits. Therefore, as a white Anglo-Saxon protestant (WASP) Christian, I would like to kindly ask the members or IRCOT to get off the so-called illegal Hispanic immigrants land and go back to where your ancestors came from in Europe or wherever—because they have a much stronger claim on this American land than you do.
7) Frank B. Chavez III has his head screwed on straight—must have upper class Mayan ancestors. I have a little more colorful way of saying that same thing Frank. Am I my brothers keeper? From the first word of Genesis to the last word of Revelations, the answer is clearly and unequivocally, “You bet your sweet ass you are!!!!” That applies to the IRCOT people whether they like it or not.
TFN is a often a … HATE MONGER … . TFN picks sick quotes from a few Tea Party members who do NOT represent the majority of the Tea Party members, and advertises these quotes as representing the majority in the Tea Party.
The Tea Party just wants our US Immigration Laws to be … ENFORCED … and wants a much smaller, less expensive FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. I say AMEN to that.
Joseph: We quote the folks the Tea Party puts forward as their spokespeople. And we quote directly from their websites. If you’re troubled by the extremism they promote, don’t blame the messenger. If you’re not troubled, then perhaps our criticism just hits too close to home.
“Whoever does not engage in procreation is like someone who spills blood”
Traditional Jewish teaching attributed to different rabbis (some of them contemporaries of Jesus).
The fundie answer would of course be: Oh Yeah? Since when is spilling blood a bad things when it’s not ours.
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TFN, you seem to forget that quoting the leaders of the right verbatim is by definition libel and slander, if it makes them look bad.
Joseph Allen likes to stick his head in, make some unsupported assertions, then disappear without providing any evidence for his claims.
TFN is a hatemonger? Really? That’s some really twisted logic. What they’ve done here is point to a Tea Party member complaining that there are too many Hispanics in the legislature, and you say TFN is the one doing the hatemongering? Wow.
Joseph Allen:
I have only questions:
1) What awful thing did Hispanic people do to you personally or a relative that would make you so anxious to keep them out of OUR country.
2) What awful thing did a fat and bloated federal government do to you personally or to a relative that makes you want a smaller, less expensive federal government.
3) React to this statement: “If Uncle Sam would quit deducting all of those taxes and fees for things like Social Security and Medicare from my paycheck, I could finally have me some kind of life.”
4) React to this statement: “A poor person needs medical care. If she does not get it, she will die in three days. It costs $70,000 dollars. She has never earned more than minimum wage in her entire life, and she has a maximum of $230 dollars in her savings account—and that has to pay the utility bill next month. Obviously, she cannot pay for the medical treatment. Explain to me why it is just fine to let her die, and tell me the verse in the bible where Jesus says that this death is fine with him and no one should feel obligated to help her.”
What is it? I can’t ever get anyone to answer my questions. Am I a cabbage or something?
No, you are not a cabbage.
There’s an answer.
Well, okay, I have another question here. If these guys are pushing Biblical mandates, isn’t that against their theology? I thought they were against men dating each other.