Fringe Groups Distort Debate Over Health Care

By Jill Garvey, Imagine 2050 contributor

Journalists should use caution when reporting on immigrants and health care.

Anti-immigrant groups with controversial histories are crying fire when it comes to health care and immigrants in an attempt to use mainstream media sources to stir up mass panic.

Amid a rash of articles muddying the waters on whether immigrants will and should have access to health care, both documented and undocumented immigrants suffer an unfair battering. And the best interests of the American public are obscured.

A Washington Times article of November 30, 2009 relied exclusively on the shaky data of Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigrant group founded by John Tanton. In order to assert that “health bills fail to block illegals from coverage”, the article liberally quotes Center for Immigration Studies’ research director, Steven Camarota, and Iowa Representative Steve King.

Both men are players in a well-documented web of anti-immigrant groups with ties to white nationalism and racial eugenics called the John Tanton Network.

Rep. King has maintained strong relationships with over two dozen of these controversial organizations since he joined the House of Representatives in 2003.

In an effort to mainstream the Network’s image, Center for Immigration Studies was created by John Tanton to populate panel discussions, publish “expert” reports, and regularly place op-ed pieces not only in conservative and right-wing periodicals, but also in major, mainstream daily newspapers.

Read entire article in Imagine 2050.