Progressives for Immigration Reform is an "astroturfed" anti-immigration organization (Tanton)

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Media Matters
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An anti-immigrant group with links to white nationalism is all over local media -- and it's being falsely billed as left-wing

An anti-immigrant group with links to white nationalism is all over local media -- and it's being...
mediamatters.org
11:53 AM · Jul 12, 2021

https://www.mediamatters.org/immigration/anti-immigrant-group-links-white-nationalism-all-over-local-media-and-its-being-falsely

Progressives for Immigration Reform is a small, nativist 501(c)3 organization masquerading as a liberal group to advocate for changes to our current immigration system by claiming an environmental angle, and its rhetoric has found its way to local media.

In reality, PFIR is an “astroturfed” anti-immigration organization with deep ties to the network of anti-immigrant groups founded by white nationalist and eugenicist John Tanton, including two Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate groups, the Center for Immigration Studies and the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

According to PFIR, overpopulation and immigration are fueling environmental crises. The group uses this supposed environmentalist position to push its racist and nativist rhetoric outside of right-wing spaces. The Southern Poverty Law Center calls this method “greenwashing.”

PFIR held its inaugural conference in 2010 under Executive Director Leah Durant, who was formerly employed by FAIR’s legal arm, the Immigration Reform Law Institute. Current Executive Director Kevin Lynn, who took over in 2017, also founded Doctors Without Jobs and U.S. Tech Workers, both offshoots of PFIR that claim immigrants are stealing jobs from U.S.-born doctors and tech workers. According to the SPLC, PFIR continues to maintain close ties to the Center for Immigration Studies and Federation for American Immigration Reform. While there are other board members listed on the PFIR website, Lynn and “writer and analyst” Joe Guzzardi appear to be the only employees publicly pushing PFIR’s narrative in 2021. Guzzardi is a regularly published columnist, and Lynn is the only paid member of PFIR’s leadership according to its 2019 federal form 990.

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