La Raza (The Race) Slated for Taxpayers’ Money

Rep. Steve King (R-IA) has pointed out an outrageous situation. To appreciate the outrage, let’s consider a hypothetical situation: Let’s imagine that the House of Representatives passed an “earmark” to provide $950,000 to the Ku Klux Klan. Of course this would cause a great uproar, and people would demand why a supremacist group should be getting public money.

Now let’s imagine that the Klan’s Grand Wizard tries to justify the expenditure in the following manner. He states, “The money we receive will not go to our main organization, but to the Klan Development Fund, which helps people with housing and community development.” Would that explanation make the public less upset? Certainly not. Critics would reply that any money going to the Klan, even if it were limited to beneficial purposes, would work to promote the overall prestige and influence of the organization.

With that thought in mind, let’s consider what really happened. The House did indeed pass a $950,000 earmark, not for the Klan, but for the National Council of La Raza (The Race). La Raza is a well-heeled Hispanic group that consistently advocates benefits for illegal aliens, including amnesty, and opposes any effective steps to curtail illegal immigration. The transparent purpose of this encouragement of lawbreaking is to increase the political clout and power of “the race” at the expense of other groups. Given its Latino supremacist character, some have referred to La Raza as the “Tan Klan.”

A spokesman for the organization defended the earmark saying that it would go to its subsidiary group, the Raza Development Fund, for housing and community development. And that doesn’t benefit the whole organization? If the government wants to assist people with housing and other matters, let the work be done through a public agency, not a private outfit pursuing highly questionable goals. As Rep. King so rightly observed, “[T]he last thing Congress should be doing is handing out cash to apologists for immigration lawbreakers. American taxpayers do not support La Raza’s agenda or its position in support of amnesty for illegal aliens.”

If La Raza receives this federal money, it certainly won’t be the first time. For years it has received a steady stream of federal grants. And it’s not as if La Raza is poor and needy. The group has many deep-pocket contributors, most notably the Ford Foundation. If these private sources wish to fund La Raza and thereby promote its agenda, they have that right. But the “Tan Klan” has no right to take money from the many taxpayers who abhor what it stands for.

Ending public funding for La Raza and similar groups has been a goal of Americans for Immigration Control for some time. We will continue to raise this issue in Washington.