Arizona, which recently passed the strongest anti-immigrant law in the nation, has now found itself the breeding ground of yet even more strident immigration foes.
The National Socialist Movement is now passing out flyers celebrating Cinco de Mayo as "Report An Illegal Day."
Cinco de Mayo typically celebrates the anniversary of Mexican independence.
The flyer, acquired by a local news station, calls for recipients to fax or email Congress demanding that the "border be secured." It also seeks the aid of local businesses in an effort to verify and turn people in to the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Yahoo Group page for National Socialist Movement Arizona describes the organization as a "civil rights organization for White people of America."
"Other race's [sic] have their own advocate groups for their own people; we are the representatives for White people," the group's description says. "The NSM is also strongly nationalistic. We believe in America FIRST, and are against sending our servicemen and women to fight endless wars with nations that we don't belong."
According to Phoenix's ABC affiliate, Phoenix police are looking into the flyer.
Over the weekend, a leaked email revealed that supporters of Arizona's new immigration law deliberately sought to target the poor. Correspondence between think tank lawyer Kris Kobach and Arizona state Sen. Russell Pearce (R-Mesa) suggests that Arizona's new immigration law, conceived in the nation's capital, was intended to hit poor Latinos the hardest.
Kobach, an attorney with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, has been a key player behind the scenes on one of the country's most controversial immigration "fixes."
"When we drop out 'lawful contact' and replace it with 'a stop, detention, or rest, in the enforcement a violation of any title or section of the Arizona code' we need to add 'or any county or municipal ordinance,'" Kolbach wrote in an email exposed by Think Progress on Friday. "This will allow police to use violations of property codes (ie. cars on blocks in the yard) or rental codes (too many occupants of a rental accommodation) to initiate queries as well."
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