John Tanton
John Tanton is a retired opthalmologist, who has long been involved in natural resources conservation. He is past editor and current publisher of The Social Contract. He says that this interest led him to concern about the effects, on the environmnet, of uncontrolled population growth, and he has become involved in groups concerned with immigration into the United States. Some groups, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), say he goes well beyond ecology and into restrictive immigration, nativism and even white nationalism. [1] SPLC, however, is not without criticism for its own political activities. [2]
Conservation
He was national President of Zero Population Growth from 1975 to 1977 and was Chairman of its Immigration Study Committee (1973-1975); Chairman of the Sierra Club National Population Committee (1971-1975).
In the foreword to the biography of Tanton and his wife Mary Lou, former Colorado governor Richard Lamm observes, "the Tantons, years before other environmentalists, saw a nations demographic future has changed from a unalterable given to an alterable variable — from something we blindly inherit, to something we determine. [3]
Organizations
While the SPLC says he has formed a number of organizations, some of which they designate (+) hate groups:[1]
- American Immigration Control Foundation AICF, 1983, funded
- American Patrol/Voice of Citizens Together 1992, funded
- California Coalition for Immigration Reform CCIR, 1994, funded
- Californians for Population Stabilization 1996, funded (founded separately in 1986)
- Center for Immigration Studies CIS, 1985, founded and funded
- Federation for American Immigration Reform FAIR, 1979, founded and funded
- NumbersUSA; 1996, founded and funded
- Population-Environment Balance; 1973, joined board in 1980
- Pro English; 1994, founded and funded
- ProjectUSA; 1999, funded
- The Social Contract Press 1990, founded and funded
- U.S. English; 1983, founded and funded
- U.S. Inc.; 1982, founded and funded
SPLC describes his key efforts as involving three complementary organizations:[4]
- Federation for American Immigration Reform, a lobbying organization, which he founded and on whose board he remains,
- Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank,
- NumbersUSA, "The Grassroots Organizer"
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "John Tanton's Network", Intelligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center
- ↑ Carol M. Swain (10 August 2009), "Mission Creep and the Southern Poverty Law Center's Misguided Focus", Huffington Post
- ↑ John F. Rohe (2002), Mary Lou & John Tanton: A Journey into American Conservation, p. viii
- ↑ Heidi Beirich, Mark Potok (editor) (February 2009), The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center