White Supremacist heads Protect Arkansas Now : AZ IMC

Arkansas immigration lobbyist tied to alleged hate groups

January 27, 2005, 6:56 AM

LITTLE ROCK

Ark. (AP) -- A leading hate-group tracker says Joe McCutchen of Fort Smith, a self-described "one-man band against illegal immigration" who is now lobbying for a bill in the Arkansas Legislature, has ties to allegedly racist organizations.

Sens. Jim Holt, R-Springdale, and Denny Altes, R-Fort Smith, on Wednesday filed the proposed Arkansas Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act. The measure would require stricter proof of citizenship for voter registration and forbid public assistance for non-citizens unless mandated by the federal government. The bill also requires state and local authorities to report illegal aliens to federal immigration officials.

Holt introduced McCutchen on Friday as the head of Protect Arkansas Now, a lobbying group modeled after Protect Arizona Now, the lobbyists for a similar immigration law in Arizona that passed by referendum last November.

McCutchen denied Southern Poverty Law Center's claims Wednesday that he was a member of the Council of Conservative Citizens, but acknowledged that he wrote about his campaign to tighten immigration laws in the February 2000 edition of "American Renaissance," identified as a "hate sheet" by the racism watchdog group.

He said he had never heard of "American Renaissance," but recognized his letter to its editor appealing for money for his campaign to help unseat then-U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-Mich., who eventually lost the 2000 election and became President Bush's energy secretary.

McCutcheon said "American Renaissance" was one of many publications and organizations on a list of donors to efforts to limit immigration, although his political action committee was essentially self-funded and received only about $5,000 from contributions.

McCutchen spread much of his anti-Abraham, immigration-limiting message by flying a sign-toting plane over Michigan and Michigan State football games. At the time, Abraham was a leading proponent of expanding entry visas to foreign high-tech workers. McCutchen said Wednesday that the Arab-American politician's work against immigration-limiting measures had helped the country become "a third-world dumping ground."

McCutchen also acknowledged participating in a 2001 anti-immigration forum in North Carolina, sponsored by the Council of Conservative Citizens, which the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a successor of the old White Citizens Council. In a 2001 CCC publication, McCutchen is identified as a member, but he said Wednesday that the only organizations he's ever belonged to are four Masonic orders and the American Airplane Pilots Association.

McCutchen said that after participating in the 2001 forum with self-described racial separatist Virginia Abernethy, who later became chairwoman of Protect Arizona Now, he decided to break all ties with CCC.

"I decided this wasn't my schtick," he said. "I'm strictly working on an illegal immigration basis, and they're in other areas. I'm strictly looking for the stability of this country and upholding the rule of law."

McCutchen said he resented having to make such a disclaimer, but said he has been careful to point out that people who want to tighten laws against illegal immigration "are not bigots, xenophobes, racists or anti-Semites."

Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, said the watchdog group was not making sweeping generalizations, but specific allegations about McCutchen.

"We do not believe that having a position in favor of restricting immigration makes you racist; it's a perfectly debatable issue," Potok said. "But we have seen an enormous section of the anti-immigration movement is infected by racism and white-supremacist activists."

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Also see this article at the Southern Poverty Law Center site: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=8