Last week, Jason Richwine, who co-authored the deeply flawed report on the costs of immigration reform the Heritage Foundation, made big news when we learned that his 2009 dissertation was on IQ and immigration and included this:
No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.
Yeah. Seriously. Ugly.
But, in an interview over the weekend, Richwine, who left his job at Heritage on Friday, made it clear that he is standing by his work:
“I do not apologize for any of my work,” he told [Byron York at the Washington Examiner]. “I’m proud of it. But I do regret the way it has been used.”
That’s his only regret? We find Richwine’s work repugnant–but he did undermine the Heritage Foundation, the Heritage anti-immigrant report and the anti-immigrant movement.
Here’s more news from opponents of immigration reform today:
When Pat Buchanan worked for Richard Nixon, they engaged in a “Southern Strategy,” which used coded language to attract Southern white voters who did not approve of desegregation and civil rights. Now, Buchanan wants the GOP to engage in a new “Southern Strategy”–on immigrants. Via Huffington Post:
Pat Buchanan has a plan to win more white voters for the GOP.
In an article published by the website World Net Daily last week, Buchanan describes increased black voter turnout and Latino demographic growth as a “crisis for the Grand Old Party.” To combat it, the conservative pundit implies that theRepublican Party should adopt a new version of the “Southern Strategy” revolving around immigration.
The Southern Strategy, first adopted by Richard Nixon, aimed to cultivate the support of Southern voters in part by appealing to racial tensions while avoiding overt racism. The strategy played a key role in alienating African-American voters from the GOP.
The old Southern Strategy did work–for a time. But as the 2012 elections showed, there’s a new demographic dynamic at play, and it hinges on Latino and minority voters. Buchanan’s strategy might appeal to Jeff Sessions and Chuck Grassley, but he’s leading the GOP off a demographic cliff.
And, then, there’s Ted Nugent who wants undocumented immigrants to be treated like “indentured servants”– seriously:
National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent detailed a plan for immigration reform which calls for treating undocumented immigrants like “indentured servants” and requiring undocumented male immigrants to build a fence on the United States-Mexico border.
In his regular column for WND, Nugent proposed his “Nuge Immigration Plan” because “[w]e don’t need any more bloodsuckers” and promised to “apply Sherriff Joe Arpaio justice” to anyone who has been deported for committing a crime and caught trying to re-enter the country. The plan would also end birthright citizenship currently guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. According to Nugent, “The anchor baby scam should be immediately rescinded. You don’t need to be a constitutional expert like our president to know that the original intent of the 14th Amendment was not to provide citizenship to illegal women or their babies who are born on American soil.”
The “NIP” would also involve ending the United States government practice of printing some documents in Spanish and other languages, which Nugent calls “the most racist thing our government does” by “encouraging people not to learn English.”
To jog your memory on what Ted Nugent is all about, here is he talking about immigrants in 2008:
ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: You want to kill on sight anybody who illegally comes into the country. Just shoot them, right?
NUGENT: If they’re armed, and they’re attacking our country, yes.
COLMES: Well, they wouldn’t be attacking. You don’t know if someone coming over the border — would you just shoot anybody coming over the border who you suspect of being illegal?
NUGENT: In an unauthorized entry, armed, like they are right now, invading our country, I’d like to shoot them dead.
COLMES: Just shoot them dead. All right. [Hannity & Colmes via Nexis, 10/13/08]
This trio, Richwine, Buchanan and Nugent, represent the “best” thinking of the anti-immigrant movement. No wonder they’re losing.
