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IRLI enlisted support from cities to attach their name to an amicus brief it filed in opposition to California鈥檚 Values ACT SB54, a law听preventing state and local law enforcement agencies from using money or personnel to investigate or detain persons based on their immigration status. Other options for cities to fight back include filing their own suits, passing an ordinance to not comply with SB54. FAIR has offered 鈥渁dvice and legal assistance to all jurisdictions," according to a听听by the Los Angeles Times.听FAIR has also been听听emailing city council members and quietly promising them that their cities will be represented free of charge if they decide to file lawsuits against the state.听

Carlos Perea of听听has been monitoring the anti-sanctuary campaign closely. 鈥淚t is unacceptable that local elected officials are working with FAIR to launch a hate campaign that scapegoats immigrants for a political agenda that serves one purpose, to further polarize and divide our communities,鈥� Perea told Hatewatch.听听鈥淭he public needs to know which elected officials are working with hate groups and they should be held accountable.鈥澨�

Perea is right. FAIR has an almost four decades-old track record of racism, starting with its founder, white nationalist听John Tanton听who wrote in 1993, "I've come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that." FAIR received over $1 million in funding from the听Pioneer Fund, one of the most influential hate groups of the 20^迟丑听century and a group founded with an explicit eugenicist mission. FAIR鈥檚 leadership has routinely espoused racist rhetoric. Its longtime president Dan Stein听once warned听that immigrants are 鈥済etting into competitive breeding.鈥澨�

Despite FAIR鈥檚 toxicity, city councils across Southern California have taken FAIR up on their offer of pro bono help. IRLI hailed the plethora of cities voting against SB54 as a 鈥渇irestorm of opposition.鈥� Over 25 cities to date have voted in opposition and the听听of anti-immigrant groups is to quadruple this number by the end of the summer. FAIR is coy about how deep its involvement is in this effort, attempting to portray it as a grassroots uprising. But听听obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union of California via Freedom of Information Act requests show that FAIR鈥檚 national field director, Susan Tully, has been busy emailing city council officials and offering pro bono assistance. Tully has also been听听with city council members across Southern California.听听

FAIR is also quiet on the fact that its orchestrated campaign has whipped a small band of anti-sanctuary activists from California and elsewhere into a frenzy, with this group traveling from city to city on a nightly basis and stoking racial tensions at city council meetings. Hatewatch has spoken to multiple meeting attendees and reviewed videos of the recent city council meetings which reveal blatant examples of hate speech and threatening behavior stemming from this small band of anti-sanctuary activists.听听鈥淎nti-sanctuary people showing at city council meetings in OC have become more aggressive and they feel more emboldened to launch racially charged slurs. They have become more aggressive that at times they have physically confronted young people attending city council meetings,鈥� said Perea.听听

The activists do not represent one group, ideology or ethnicity, but are rather a longtime anti-immigrant activists, newer activists inspired by Donald Trump, more hardcore elements including some who have espoused holocaust denial and white nationalist tropes, along with the leader of an anti-LGBT hate group. Coupled with anti-immigrant animus, anti-LGBT and antisemitic rhetoric has been a mainstay at the city council meetings over the past two months.听

Reports have also听听that anti-sanctuary speakers have depicted undocumented immigrants as criminals who harbor disease.听In one video reviewed by Hatewatch, Mike McGetrick of the anti-immigrant group听听can be seen confronting a younger attendee outside the meeting in Los Alamitos screaming, 鈥淚 want you out of my country听you illegal alien creep, you weirdo!鈥澨�

听to the听Daily Bulletin, antisemitic remarks were directed toward rabbis at least three of the meetings. Rabbi Stephen Einstein who is a supporter of the sanctuary law, was told to 鈥済et circumcised,鈥� at one meeting. 鈥淭hose are telling comments. Many people who have issues with current immigration policy also hold virulently racist views toward other groups,鈥� Einstein told the听Bulletin.In a听听of the Huntington Beach meeting on April 2, 鈥�Harim Uziel,鈥� who runs the 鈥淗ardcore American Patriot鈥� Facebook page can be heard shouting about circumcision at Einstein during his public remarks.听

At a more recent Huntington Beach meeting, anti-sanctuary activist Gracey Van Der Mark who has a听听of making antisemitic comments on her Facebook page addressed the city council. Van Der Mark鈥檚 YouTube account even had a playlist titled, 鈥淗olocaust Hoax?鈥� The playlist included a video from rabidly anti-LGBT pastor听Steven Anderson听titled, 鈥淭he Holocaust Hoax Exposed.鈥� Van Der Mark, who has since deleted the playlist, formerly served on a number of government committees in Huntington Beach but was听听from them in early May due to her racist social media posts and听.

Blanket attacks on people of color and others have also been a hallmark of the city council meetings. Genevieve Peters, a leader in the anti-sanctuary effort, has a number of videos on her Facebook account from the various meetings she has attended. In a听听published on April 4 at the Escondido meeting, Peters can be heard yelling, 鈥渃all ICE鈥� at Latino speakers. At the meeting in Westminster on April 11, Peters repeatedly claims that an LGBT activist who addressed the city council has a 鈥渕ental illness.鈥� Peters routinely attacks transgender people on her Facebook account saying they have a 鈥渕ental disorder鈥� and need 鈥減sychotherapy.鈥� Also at the Westminster meeting, she berates a man with shouts of 鈥淢ental illness!鈥� after he mentioned he has husband. At the same meeting, Peters repeatedly yelled 鈥淕o back to the hellhole you came from,鈥� to a woman who was at the meeting with her two small children.听

Joining Peters at many of the meetings, including Westminster, was Arthur Schaper. Schaper is the head of the California chapter of the anti-LGBT group Mass Resistance, a group whose founder听falsely claimed听that no homosexuals died in the Holocaust and that the pink triangle the Nazis forced imprisoned gays to wear actually signified Catholic priests. Schaper has a history of disruptive activity at city council meetings and was听听at a meeting in Huntington Beach in 2017.听

Local residents who spoke to Hatewatch are appalled by the ugly manifestation of the anti-sanctuary campaign in their cities. 鈥淚n my observation, the racially charged language came from a single group of outsiders, that organized and went from city council to city council.听 I did not hear the language coming from residents of our city,鈥� said resident Trina Mangione.

Jody Kyle has attended multiple city council meetings in Orange County and blames elected officials for accepting FAIR鈥檚 advances. 鈥淭hey are trying to make their own听political fortunes and careers by capitalizing on human misery. The local elected officials insist on discussing SB54 in terms of 鈥榮tate over-reach鈥� and 鈥榞iving local law enforcement the freedom to act.鈥欌�� Says Kyle. 鈥淚 believe SB54 is a way to talk about Latinos, and Mexicans, and Arabs and Muslims without actually saying the words.鈥�

With multiple city council meetings scheduled to take place in the coming weeks, FAIR and its band of anti-sanctuary activists shows no signs of slowing down.听

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Photo credit: Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP Images