FAIR Bringing Anti-Immigrant Talk Radio Hosts to D.C.
Starting today, the anti-immigrant hate group is holding its fifth annual . Fifty talk radio hosts are in Washington, D.C., for what FAIR calls 鈥渢he largest immigration 鈥榯own hall鈥� of the airwaves to date.鈥� The hosts will broadcast from near the Capitol, chiefly to demand that members of Congress and other officials take a harder line against immigration. FAIR supporters will also be on hand to lobby elected officials for anti-immigrant legislation that will 鈥渞elieve many of the burdens that mass immigration 鈥� legal and illegal 鈥� imposes on the American people.鈥�
Many of the radio hosts joining FAIR have engaged in vicious anti-immigrant demagoguery. of 99.7 WTN in Nashville, Tenn., has been particularly awful. In 2006, Valentine held an anti-immigration 鈥渢own hall meeting鈥� in Franklin, Tenn., which more than 1,000 people attended. During the event, which was broadcast live, Valentine conducted a question-and-answer session with Susan Tully, FAIR鈥檚 national field director. At one point, Tully described how Border Patrol agents repeatedly apprehend the same Latino immigrants, returning them to Mexico each time only to later detain the same person again. Tully claimed that a Border Patrol agent in Laredo, Texas, told her that this process had been repeated as many as seven times. Tully then said she asked the agent, 鈥淲hat do you do on the eighth time?鈥� and Valentine interjected: 鈥淪hoot him!鈥� Tully laughed, and the crowd cheered.
Valentine鈥檚 not the only HFTF host who has bashed immigrants. Steve Gill of FOX News Radio has repeatedly described undocumented immigrants as a military invasion force. In May 2006, Gill said, 鈥渋f 100,000 Mexicans rushed the border at the same time and if people looked at the situation the way it really is, no one would call it anything other than an invasion, and we would send in the military and shoot people.鈥� Other hosts, including Helen Glover and Dave Elswick, have actively promoted the , often by broadcasting from border encampments. Media Matters has a full rundown on the anti-immigrant and often racist comments made by various hosts participating in FAIR鈥檚 event.
Joining these radio hosts will be other anti-immigrant activists, including (PFIR). PFIR sent out an email advising that Durant will be interviewed by聽several radio shows, including 鈥淭he Joyce Kaufman Show,鈥� 鈥淭he Other Side with Charles Butler鈥� and 鈥淭he Schilling Show.鈥� PFIR is known for cloaking its anti-immigrant message behind appeals arguing that fewer immigrants would be better for the environment and labor. But this 鈥減rogressive鈥� message is belied by the fact that PFIR鈥檚 boards are stuffed full of former FAIR officials.
This year, the agenda seems to have moved a bit beyond immigration.聽 Former San Diego mayor and longtime talk radio host Roger Hedgecock has HFTF for the past few years, usually ranting about what he considers America鈥檚 broken immigration system. But this year, Hedgecock says his agenda has broadened to this: 鈥淐ut federal spending, repeal and defund Obamacare and secure the border with Mexico.鈥� And he is sounding downright apocalyptic. In a called 鈥淭alk Is Not Enough,鈥� Hedgecock complained that 鈥渙ur Constitution is in the shredder鈥� and the 鈥渢ime for talk鈥� is over; it鈥檚 now the 鈥渢ime for action.鈥�
