The Mississippi lawmaker who today introduced anti-immigrant legislation modeled after Alabama’s disastrous HB 56 is a member of a network of legislators that has embraced a raft of beliefs and conspiracy theories that currently animate radical-right extremists.

Rep. Becky Currie is one of about 65 members of State Legislators for Legal Immigration, or SLLI, in 40 states. SLLI was founded in 2007 by Pennsylvania state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, an anti-immigrant hardliner who has written on SLLI’s website that “the personal and economic safety” of all Americans is threatened by “the ongoing invasion of illegal aliens.” He has compared the situation to that facing the colonies during the American Revolution.

SLLI’s members have promoted conspiracy theories about supposed government concentration camps and a coming one-world government, as well as false claims that President Obama is a foreigner and a Muslim. Some have described undocumented immigrants in vicious terms – as “invaders” or as a “poison.”

SLLI highlights the fact that it has a “working partnership” with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which has been listed as a hate group by the SPLC since 2007 for its white nationalist agenda and ties to racist groups. FAIR lawyers draft much of the anti-immigrant legislation pushed by SLLI members. FAIR’s demonizing propaganda, aimed primarily at Latinos and often Catholics; its ties to other hate groups and its hiring of their members; and its push for laws promoting racial discord all have been instrumental in fostering the anti-immigrant backlash that has swept the nation.

FULL ARTICLE: Mississippi Lawmaker Introduces Alabama-Style Anti-Immigrant Bill | Hatewatch | Southern Poverty Law Center.