Tea Party Patriots Plan Nativist October Surprise

As IREHR has repeatedly warned, national Tea Party factions have been driving the anti-immigrant charge since at least 2010, blocking all efforts at humane immigration reform. Now comes news that one of the largest factions, Tea Party Patriots, is planning to launch a major new nativist campaign on October 16.

Laying out the new campaign in hyperbolic nativist rhetoric, Tea Party Patriots promotional web material for the “The Border States of America” contends that,

The incendiary and inaccurate Tea Party Patriot rhetoric mimics the argument that anti-immigrant establishment groups like the Federation for American Immigration Reform and NumbersUSA have made for years–that a flood of “illegal aliens” are pouring over the Mexican border to ravage the American heartland.

The centerpiece of the new Tea Party Patriots campaign is a web video and DVD, “The Border States of America.” The trailer for the video appears to be a slicker version of the type of materials groups like the Minuteman Project were circulating back in 2006-2007 (See below to watch trailer). It should be noted that the executive director and media director of the Minuteman Project also run a different Tea Party faction.

Tea Party Patriots are asking members and “like-minded Americans” to host premiere house parties on October 16 to show the video to “family, friends and neighbors.”

While the Tea Party Patriots anti-immigrant rhetoric had been increasing steadily over the last two years as the group transitioned away from Obamacare, this new campaign marks a significant intensification of the nativist activity for the group. IREHR will continue to watch these developments closely.