Pro-Immigration Conservative Uses Restrictionist Rhetoric to Raise Money

"I urge you to join this pivotal fight to preserve America's cultural identity," Keene says in his letter.

Keene was a consultant to the 1996 presidential campaign of pro-immigraton former Sen. Bob Dole, who faced immigration restrictionist Pat Buchanan in the GOP primaries. Keene denounced Buchanan at the time as "anti-Hispanic" for advocating limits on immigration.

Keene recently joined forces with immigration advocate Grover Norquist, President of Americans for Tax Reform, to urge President Bush to abandon a Justice Department's anti-terror plan that would enlist the help of local police by enabling them to arrest illegal aliens.

Under the plan, devised by Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Immigration and Naturalization Service will begin issuing arrest warrants for foreigners who pose a national security threat or who violate the terms of their visas. The names of those visitors will be listed in the national crime database routinely checked by local law enforcement officials during traffic stops. Local police who encounter listed foreigners will be able to execute the warrant and apprehend the aliens. More than 11 million illegal aliens reside in the U.S. - half or more of whom are visa violators - but the INS has only 2,000 investigators.

To protect illegals from police scrutiny, ethnic advocacy groups such as the left-wing National Council of La Raza are organizing opposition to the plan, calling on President George Bush to abandon it. Keene and Norquist have followed suit, telling Bush in a letter that encouraging police to arrest lawbreaking foreigners was "bad policy."

Norquist is a member of ACU's board of directors. In the 1990's, Norquist worked for the pro-immigration Microsoft Corp. on Capitol Hill where he lobbied on the software giant's behalf against immigration restrictions and sought to lift the limits allowed on foreign workers admitted to the U.S.

Keene associate Stephen Moore, another member of ACU's board of directors, is the former director of fiscal policy studies at the pro-immigration libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. Moore now runs a group called "The Club for Growth," which backs candidates for Congress thatare friendly to big business.

Moore has written articles in favor of increased immigration to the U.S., and has debated against immigration restrictionists. In one article, Moore favorably cited a speech at Cato by Rep. Dick Armey, R-TX, who said he believes the U.S. "should be thinking about increasing legal immigration." Moore has also worked on studies for the influential left-wing immigration advocacy group, the National Immigration Forum, which favors amnesty for illegal aliens.

In his letter to conservative donors, Keene says the ACU intends to survey 2 million voters by mail on their views of amnesty for illegals, and asks for contributions to cover the costs. Donors are also asked to sign a petition against amnesty to be delivered to Congress. Keene does not say in the letter whether the money raised will be used exclusively for the purported anti-amnesty campaign, or used to fund general ACU programs. By the time this issue went to press, a spokesman for ACU had not returned telephone calls or responded to e-mail inquiries from Middle American News.