New York, NY, July 10, 2008 ... In its ongoing effort to expose virulent anti-immigration rhetoric seeping into the mainstream, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has released a backgrounder on the newly formed group America's Leadership Team for Long Range Population-Immigration-Resource Planning ("Leadership Team"), which is sponsoring a media campaign aimed at demonizing immigrants.

Leadership Team ads appearing in The New York Times and elsewhere argue that high immigration levels cause environmental damage, traffic congestion, higher taxes and severe strain on schools, emergency rooms and public infrastructure. 

These are classic arguments advanced by the anti-immigration movement to demonize not only the undocumented, but all immigrants and their children, according to ADL.

Founded in June, the Leadership Team has connections to John Tanton, an anti-immigration activist who once suggested that if the borders are not secured, America will be overrun by people "defecating and creating garbage and looking for jobs." 

Groups comprising the Leadership Team include various anti-immigration organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), whose leaders have a history of extremist affiliations; and American Immigration Control Foundation, which sells, at low cost, publications authored by racists and anti-immigrant figures. 

For more information or to speak with an expert on anti-immigrant groups, contact ADL Media Relations at adlmedia@adl.org, or visit the League's online resource, Immigrants Targeted: Extremist Rhetoric Moves into the Mainstream.

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world's leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.