人兽性交

More than eight months after promoting nativist falsehoods in a booklet about illegal immigration, the American Legion has discreetly removed the most egregious inaccuracies from an updated version of its report.

But America鈥檚 largest veterans group has failed to publicly acknowledge the errors, which Hatewatch last July. Furthermore, the new edition of the report continues to perpetuate derogatory myths about undocumented immigrants. 鈥淭he security, economy and social fabric of the United States of America is [sic] seriously threatened by individuals who are illegally in this country,鈥� the booklet states.

The legion first released A Strategy to Address Illegal Immigration in the United States last April 28. Two months later, the legion announced the booklet was 鈥渂eing updated鈥� after two organizations 鈥� the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American GI Forum, a Hispanic veterans group 鈥� repeatedly expressed concerns. Nonetheless, in an October 2008 to the editor of the Intelligence Report, legion Commander Dave Rehbein dismissed the Intelligence Report鈥檚 debunking of factual errors in the booklet, arguing they merely reflected differing 鈥減erspectives鈥� on immigration.

But that doesn鈥檛 explain why six statements the Intelligence Report identified as false disappeared from the , which was released last week on the legion鈥檚 website.

For instance, the report no longer contends that 鈥渘on-citizens make up fully 30% of the American prison population.鈥� (The real number is roughly 6%.) Nor does it falsely claim that undocumented immigrants infected 7,000 people in this country with leprosy during a recent three-year period. (The actual figure of all leprosy cases in the U.S. during that time is about 400, and it鈥檚 unknown how many were attributable to immigrants, undocumented or otherwise.) Also gone is the assertion 鈥� for which the original report provided no source 鈥� that 鈥渕ore Americans are killed by illegal aliens than died in the Iraq War.鈥�

The 鈥渦pdated鈥� report also asserts at the outset that its opposition to illegal immigration is not based on race, religion or nationality.

Despite these changes, the booklet still presents a misleading and defamatory portrait of undocumented immigrants.

For its information, the legion relies heavily on the Federation for American Immigration Reform 鈥� which the 人兽性交 lists as a hate group in part because of its ties to white supremacists 鈥� and the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank.

Among other myths, the legion booklet still claims that:

鈥� 鈥淏y failing to assimilate into our culture [undocumented immigrants] divide America into ethnic enclaves.鈥� In fact, a recent study by the Manhattan Institute found that today鈥檚 foreign-born, while currently less assimilated than their counterparts of 100 years ago, are in fact assimilating at a faster rate than those earlier newcomers.

鈥� 鈥淚llegals cost Americans jobs.鈥� A 2006 Pew Hispanic Center study found that, overall, large increases in states鈥� immigrant population did not correspond with more unemployment for their native-born workers. Most scholars have failed to find a link between immigration and job loss.

鈥� Undocumented immigrants cause 鈥渁n enormous drain on public services.鈥� Actually, undocumented immigrants are barred from receiving most forms of public assistance, besides public school education and emergency medical care. They also pay taxes, including sales taxes, and often, through phony Social Security cards, payroll taxes. In 2005, The New York Times reported that undocumented immigrants contribute some $7 billion a year to the Social Security system they will never be able to claim.

Several of the American Legion鈥檚 state chapters and local posts are allied with hardliner nativist groups. The California branch of the American Legion hate groups and nativist extremist organizations in a coalition that seeks to force 鈥渋llegal alien birth mothers鈥� to obtain special birth certificates. The coalition, Taxpayer鈥檚 Revolution, argues that ending the 14th Amendment鈥檚 guarantee of citizenship to anyone born in the United States is 鈥渃ritical toward reducing the crime problem.鈥�

Last August, a Colorado American Legion post a three-day 鈥渘ational security convention鈥� devoted entirely to illegal immigration. The speakers included , leader of the hate groups American Patrol and American Border Patrol, who wrote in a 1996 letter to the Los Angeles Times that 鈥淢exican culture is based on deceit鈥� and 鈥淐hicanos and Mexicanos lie as a means of survival.鈥�