Pants on Fire! SPLC Flat-Out Lies about FAIR



The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has a well-documented history of lining its own pockets by promulgating lies, half-truths, and malicious slanders. Usually, they do it in a way that requires the dupes who send them money to do some digging to uncover their misrepresentation of the facts. But recently, they’ve been getting sloppy.

In their weekly “Anti-immigrant roundup,” they accuse me of “blaming immigrants living in California for supposedly having negative effects on the state’s traffic congestion and air quality,” citing a blog I posted on April 5. The blog was a whole three paragraphs, which means it would take even a slow reader about 30 seconds to discover that the SPLC is blatantly misrepresenting what I wrote.

Those who managed to make it all the way to the third paragraph would have gotten to the part that states unequivocally, “And, no, FAIR is not blaming global warming or traffic on illegal aliens – those are problems that would need to be addressed even if there weren’t a single illegal alien in the country. But California’s policies on illegal immigration aren’t making solutions to these other problems any easier.” (Emphasis added for the benefit of SPLC trolls who monitor this site.)

Even though I didn’t blame worsening traffic and air quality on California issuing driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority came pretty close to doing just that. Again, it would not have required the sleuthing prowess of Sherlock Holmes to discover that, because I provided a link to a Los Angeles Times article which stated, “Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders attributed a decline in ridership over the last few years, in part, to the new licenses. Last year, the number of trips taken on Los Angeles County’s bus and rail network fell to the lowest level in more than a decade.” (Ditto on the reason for the added emphasis.)

Anyone at the SPLC who might have had the slightest interest in the truth could also have followed the link that the L.A. Times itself provided to back-up that assertion. That link leads to a Jan. 25 story in the Times that states, “A change in state immigration policy has also chipped away at another longtime group of Metro riders. A state law that took effect in 2015 allows immigrants in the country illegally to apply for California driver’s licenses.”

And because, unlike the SPLC, FAIR likes to deal in facts and has some regard for truth, let me again be very, very clear: The issuance of a million driver’s licenses to illegal aliens is only one of several factors attributed to worsening traffic in California. As the Jan. 25 L.A. Times story states, in addition to implementation of the law granting licenses to illegal aliens, the decline in Metro ridership can be attributed to “competition from Uber and Lyft and more people buying cars — as well as perceived problems with existing transit service and security.”

Those who want to get a fuller picture of the SPLC’s sleazy record of lies and distortion can find it here.

About Author

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Ira joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 1986 with experience as a journalist, professor of journalism, special assistant to Gov. Richard Lamm (Colorado), and press secretary of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. His columns have appeared in National Review, LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and more. He is an experienced TV and radio commentator.

3 Comments

  1. avatar

    SPLC Isn’t American at All

    Perhaps they grew out of one the counties on Trump’s travel ban list?….then invaded our country to destroy it…..LOL [might as well laugh about it, what good does crying do?]

  2. avatar

    Apparently SPLC missed first grade math. 1 and 1 = 2. For many years it’s been a proven fact that the population growth in California is entirely due to legal and illegal immigration. There is an actual outflow of native born Californians to other states. Anyone who denies that population growth fueled by immigration only worsens problems is either bought and paid for, or a liar. SPLC being both.

    Like many other advocacy groups. including all “refugee resettlement” organizations, SPLC does what they are paid to do. Which is, charge discrimination no matter the facts. Of course, it’s the general public who ends up with gangs, paying welfare costs, overcrowding on highways, and housing prices unaffordable to all but the highest paid.

    But according to our media, SPLC pronouncements are not to be judged or even questioned. How many “news” stories do you read that say: “according to SPLC, a watchdog for hate speech in this country..”? And that is supposed to end the discussion.

    About a year ago when Trump referenced something that had occurred in Sweden, the entire mainstream media was saying he’s just making things up again, in spite of the fact that the Swedish government itself has admitted that there are refugee areas in which the military might have to be deployed to keep order. Same thing when he said something about London. More puzzled statements from the media, ignoring that London had had 80 deaths this year from knife attacks by African gangs.

  3. avatar
    Patricia Watkins on

    Seems to me that this is what the liberal agenda is all about. Twisting information to suit their purposes. And their purposes seem to be open borders and a free for all in America. For example: lumping illegal migrants with legal migrants by calling them “immigrants.” That is a slap in the face to those who have taken the time & money to come to America legally. Illegal alien migrants should NOT be given any benefits in America that only belong to legal citizens/residents. That includes driver’s licenses. Those should only be granted to those who have been given legal permission to live and/or work in the U.S.