Experts: Immigrant issues draw hate groups

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0314immigration-tone0314.html

Experts: Border issues draw hate groups
Jessica Coomes
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 14, 2007 12:00 AM

Hate groups are resurging nationwide by feeding on anti-immigration sentiment, an undercover detective and Anti-Defamation League leaders told state lawmakers Tuesday.

Especially in the border state of Arizona, racist hate groups and border vigilante groups have too much influence in setting the tone of the immigration debate, said Bill Straus, Arizona regional director of the Anti-Defamation League. snip

Detective Matt Browning of the Mesa Police Department said he spent 12 years working undercover with three border militia groups and six White-supremacist organizations in Arizona, who he said are some of the "most violent, racist skinheads in the nation."

"Every meeting revolved around immigration," Browning said.

Eventually, rhetoric leads to violence, he said, such as the murder and assault cases he investigated in which Hispanics were kicked with steel-toe boots.

"It is domestic terrorism. It always has been domestic terrorism, and it always will be domestic terrorism until it stops," Browning said.

[MountainLaurel]

1. When one of the major anti-immigrant groups

Disguised as a legitimate research organization, gets a lot of its funding from a white supremacist group, what can you expect?