Julie Kirchner, the former Executive Director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), has reportedly been named to head the Border Patrol under the new Trump administration. FAIR is listed as a Hate Group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
FAIR was founded by John Tanton, a leader of the racist-right, to pursue an agenda devoted to severely limiting legal immigration and deporting undocumented immigrants en masse. Tanton is a white nationalist who wrote in 1993 that “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”
According to the SPLC:
After Trump’s election, and certainly throughout his campaign, nativists have rejoiced with their newfound intimacy with the White House, and Kirchner’s appointment is only the latest of extremists groups suddenly enjoying a direct line to federal power.
FAIR’s members have a long history of rousing race and religion-based hatred against immigrants. For example, one advisory board member wrote: “Islam grows in America. This beast roams America in places like Philadelphia where Muslim women walk Market Street where Ben Franklin walked. At some point, we must shut down all Muslim immigration before we lose control of our own country. They prove relentless, uncompromising and unyielding. No such thing as a ‘moderate Muslim!’”
According to the SPLC, the “bottom line is, FAIR doesn’t peddle facts; it peddles hate. Its lobbying and legal efforts are based on fomenting fear, on exploiting racial tensions and economic anxieties to convince people that they had better not let any more ‘aliens’ into their country.”
Up until now, Trump has nominated several people close to hate groups to important positions in his administration. Today, he tapped the leader of a hate group to head the largest armed immigration enforcement agency in the federal government: Customs and Border Protection.
