Everything You Didn't Want to Know About Those Immigration Bill Foes

For years, I have harped on the anti-war crowd teaming up with pro-Marxist groups like ANSWER just to score some political points. I pondered if the peaceniks knew what they were really marching for when they held up those pre-made ANSWER anti-war signs. Now I am asking the same thing about those that opposed the Immigration Bill – Do they know whom they willingly hopped into bed with? My guess is some did but most were simply caught up in the Eat Your Own feeding frenzy.

Google the immigration bill and you will see multiple references and links to NumbersUSA. Every blog post, every thread over at FreeRepublic contained some quote of stats from NumbersUSA. Since that was a new organization to me, I started doing a little research. Talk about a virtual six degrees of separation…

NumbersUSA is part of a vast network of organizations many of which are nothing more than abortion supporters and environmentalists disguised as foes of illegal (and legal) immigration. You need a road map to trace the ties that bind all of these groups together. The best place to start though is at the source – in this case John Tanton.

Many of you have probably heard a little bit about John Tanton. I have to admit I thought he was simply an activist that was demonized for some extremist views when I first started reading up on him. After all, the Southern Poverty Law Center published the first article I read about Tanton. I took the expose with a grain of salt but used some of the claims as a jumping off point for my research. It pains me to admit it but the SPLC was right on the money.

John Tanton is a retired Ophthalmologist from Michigan. He started off with environmental conservation as a member of the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters. Tanton’s environmental concerns led him into theories of population growth and the negative impact on the environment. Zero population growth became Tanton’s concern. He opened the first Planned Parenthood Chapter in Northern Michigan. He chaired the Sierra Club’s National Population Committee from 1971 to 1975. In 1973, Tanton joined Population-Environment Balance (also known as BALANCE). Tanton joined the BALANCE board of directors in 1980.

According to its website, BALANCE is “dedicated to maintaining and improving the quality of life in the United States through population stabilization (through replacement-level fertility and immigration rates).” After the defeat of the immigration bill, BALANCE touted its influence in the big win…

“BALANCE and its ASAP coalition allies led the way to defeat the Senate Illegal Alien Amnesty Bill on a failed Cloture vote of 46-53! Our linking illegal and legal immigration via pushing for a zero-net immigration moratorium was crucial in defeating the Open borders proponents’ argument that ‘the solution to the illegal alien problem is to legalize them all.”

(Funny but I didn’t hear much about a zero-net immigration moratorium during all the debates and rhetoric flinging.)

In 1973, Tanton joined the National Executive Committee of Zero Population Growth and took the reins as President in 1975. Zero Population Growth changed its name to Population Connection in February 2002. The website for Population Connection has a bit of ZPG’s history…

“ZPG's early mission was relatively straightforward: raise public awareness of the link between population growth and environmental degradation and, in turn, encourage people to have smaller families. Thus, the corresponding message was simple: Stop at Two. ZPG's focus concentrated on reducing desired family size and ensuring the means and rights of human reproduction.”

“In 1973, the critical Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion and elective sterilization and its companion opinion, Doe v. Bolton, declared policies designed to restrict access to abortion unconstitutional. With the help of such groups as ZPG and with the leadership of "women's liberation" organizations, the idea of "reproductive rights" was now part of the national discourse. And Politicians starting taking a special interest in population issues.”

The Family Research Council is on record as stating that population control is “code for abortions, condom distribution and mass sterilization”. The combination of Planned Parenthood, population control, ZPG and BALANCE leaves little room for interpretation as to John Tanton’s view on abortion. His wife, Mary Lou Tanton, was also involved with Planned Parenthood and the Michigan Council for Study of Abortion in the early 1970’s.

Now I’m sure some of you are scratching your head and thinking what the heck does this have to do with the immigration bill. Patience my little grasshopper… there’s a lot of info and quite a web of connections to dig through. Trust me – it all pulls together into a nice little bundle of massive hypocrisy that is way too much to absorb in one post.

Next Up – how population control morphed into immigration opposition with a little help from John Tanton.