Last week I found an article that started with this: In a news release from Friday, June 29th, Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, the founder of the Tanton Network’s State Legislators for Legal Immigration, Being that this was the third time in less than a month that the universe had slapped me in the face with the Tanton Network’s State Legislators for Legal Immigration (SLLI) – I figured that meant – it's time to try to connect the dots between SLLI and ALEC. This may be a little long – but I wanted to give you the information and sources that built the story – a story I think people need to know.

There appears to be a dirty little secret lurking in the halls and cocktail parties of the of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) meetings – overt racism.

ALEC is always touting their bipartisan membership – guess their association with these groups may cause people to think twice about that ALEC lie.

Here’s a little history to get us started – snips from sources:

The John Tanton Network and the Anti-Immigrant Movement in America

One man is at the heart of the most influential network of anti-immigrant groups in the country.

This man, John H. Tanton, has created an empire of organizations populated by lobbyists, lawyers, legislators, and “experts” that have permeated the very depths of America’s social and political debate on immigration.

What appears to the public as myriad separate voices all advocating for one cause, i.e. severe immigration enforcement, is nothing more than a facade, a collection of craftily constructed front groups, faux-”coalitions,” and spin-offs that are collectively unified in their goal to overwhelm any reasonable debate on immigration with their branded worldview of bigotry.

This collective is known as the John Tanton Network.

John Tanton’s Network.

The organized anti-immigration “movement” is almost entirely the handiwork of one man, Michigan activist John H. Tanton.

Here is a list of 13 groups in the loose-knit Tanton network, followed by acronyms if the groups use them, founding dates, and Tanton’s role in the groups.

Those organizations designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center are marked with an asterisk (*).

In this list, “founded” means a group was founded or co-founded by John Tanton. “Funded” means that U.S. Inc., the funding conduit created and still headed by Tanton, has made grants to the group.

* American Immigration Control Foundation AICF, 1983, funded

* American Patrol/Voice of Citizens Together 1992, funded

* California Coalition for Immigration Reform CCIR, 1994, funded

Californians for Population Stabilization 1996, funded

(founded separately in 1986)

Center for Immigration Studies CIS, 1985, founded and funded

* Federation for American Immigration Reform FAIR, 1979,

founded and funded

NumbersUSA 1996, founded and funded

Population-Environment Balance 1973, joined board in 1980

Pro English 1994, founded and funded

ProjectUSA 1999, funded

* The Social Contract Press 1990, founded and funded

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE: Daily Kos: ALEC & SLLI – “Bipartisan” Bigotry.