Scott endorsed by group with ties to Southern Poverty Law Center-cited anti-immigrant organization

A Florida organization “advocating immigration enforcement” with ties to a nationwide anti-immigrant group flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center is endorsing Rick Scott for governor.

In its endorsement of the Republican candidate, FLEMIN-PAC — the political action committee associated with Floridians for Immigration Enforcement — writes:

Florida needs a consistent champion and leader on the issue of illegal immigration. Rick Scott is that person. Rick Scott made solving Florida’s illegal immigration crisis the cornerstone of his campaign from the onset and has not wavered.  Rick Scott has demonstrated that he will make jobs for legal residents and immigration enforcement a top priority throughout the duration of his administration if elected as Governor.

Florida’s illegal immigration crisis exists today because of the lack of leadership in Tallahassee over the last decade. That inaction cost Floridians an estimated $3.8 billion in 2008 (FAIRUS.org) and many more billions over the past decade. While career politicians failed to protect legal workers and businesses, jobs went to illegal aliens; hospital costs for illegal aliens have exploded, violent criminal aliens have been released back into Florida, and schools over-crowded with illegal alien students has resulted in inferior conditions for our own children.  Florida’s career politicians have historically been absent from duty when called to protect Florida’s legal workers and law-abiding businesses as exemplified by their failure to enact E-Verify since 2008.

Now more than ever, Florida needs Rick Scott as a Governor who has the skill and experience to create jobs in the private sector and the leadership to ensure those new jobs go to legal workers of Florida.

David Caulker is a founder and vice president of Floridians for Immigration Enforcement, and also serves as a “Florida state advisor” for FAIR, the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Here is how the Southern Poverty Law Center characterizes FAIR:

Founded in 1978 by John H. Tanton, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is one of the country’s best-established anti-immigration groups.

…

Tanton remains on FAIR’s board and also is the publisher of The Social Contract Press, which sells racist anti-immigrant tracts.

Dan Stein, the group’s executive director, has warned that certain immigrant groups are engaged in “competitive breeding” aimed at diminishing white power. Rick Oltman, FAIR’s western representative, has spoken before and worked with the racist Council of Conservative Citizens.

Garrett Hardin, a FAIR board member, has argued that aiding starving Africans is counterproductive and will only “encourage population growth.” Overall, FAIR blames immigrants for crime, poverty, disease, urban sprawl and increasing racial tensions in America, and calls for a drastic cut in the numbers of those allowed in.

FLIMEN’s website has links to Florida Minutemen Patriots, Immigration Control Florida, Floridians for Sustainable Population, FIRE Coalition, Numbers USA, and ALIPAC.

FIRE Coalition’s website says the group “is about solutions to the largest invasion in the history of the world happening right under our noses; that is the invasion and occupation of the United States by illegal aliens from foreign nations.”

The group has teams in Lee, Collier, and Pinellas counties, southern Palm Beach County, The Villages, Central Florida, Sarasota, and the Treasure Coast.