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Daryl Metcalfe, state rep with ties to right-wing extremists, begins hearings on anti-immigrant legislation
One bill is similar to Arizona's infamous "papers please" law that requires police to check "suspicious" persons for proof of citizenship.
Daryl Metcalfe, state rep with ties to right-wing extremists, begins hearings on anti-immigrant legislation
State Representative Daryl Metcalfe, the most right-wing member of the Pennsylvania legislature, yesterday began hearings on 14 anti-immigrant bills that he has christened "The National Security Begins at Home legislative package."
One bill is similar to Arizona's infamous "papers please" law that requires police to check "suspicious" persons for proof of citizenship. Civil rights activists are concerned because the only way someone can "seem like an illegal immigrant" is if they are, you know, not white or don't speak English well.
I wrote a lengthy profile of Metcalfe in July, and it's worth recounting that Metcalfe, like other anti-immigrant crusaders, often finds himself sharing a stage with white supremacists:
Metcalfe's group State Lawmakers for Legal Immigration works closely with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti-immigrant organization that the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated a hate group. FAIR has, among other things, received extensive funding from the white supremacist Pioneer Fund, and group leaders like founder John Tanton have made numerous racist statements, such as a 1993 letter stating that "for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that."
Metcalfe has also spoken alongside Dan Smeriglio, an ally in Pennsylvania's anti-immigrant movement and alleged white supremacist, including at a 2007 rally organized by Smeriglio's Voice of The People USA organization. Metcalfe even spoke at a June 2010 rally in Phoenix organized by Smeriglio to support the state's harsh new anti-immigrant law — a rally that even anti-immigrant leader William Gheen boycotted as a result of Smeriglio's white power ties. Gheen noted at the time that Smeriglio had appeared with Steve Smith, leader of the racist skinhead organization Keystone United, at an anti-immigrant rally in Hazelton, Pa. Smeriglio also listed the white supremacist singer-songwriter Saga as a favorite musical act on Facebook, where Metcalfe and Smeriglio were both Smith's "friends."
FAIR's Robert Najmulski was slated to testify yesterday, and so was Michael Bekesha, a lawyer at the right wing group Judicial Watch. Bekesha was in Harrisburg earlier this year to testify in favor of Metcalfe's voter ID legislation, which would put an end to the non-existent problem of voter fraud while making it much harder for the poor, college students, elderly and non-white to vote. Steven Camarota was on the list too. He, like others at the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), has contributed writing to a quaint white supremacist journal called The Social Contract.
Metcalfe, however, is not satisfied with the size of the stage that Harrisburg provides him with. On Monday, Metcalfe's national coalition of anti-immigrant state legislators (State Legislators for Legal Immigration) condemned Obama's decision to stop deporting so many non-criminal immigrants, especially young people brought here by their parents as young children. Metcalfe accused Obama, who has deported a record number of immigrants during his first term, of a "deplorable act of treasonous deceit."
Illustration: Evan M. Lopez
Follow me on Twitter: @DanielDenvir
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