Ford Foundation vs. the Constitutional Republic

In THE FACTOR "Follow-Up" Segment tonight, last week, we told you that the Ford Foundation has donated almost $60 million to immigration groups that want to keep American borders open.

Two footnotes: The Ford Foundation has nothing to do with the Ford Motor Company. And THE FACTOR factor wants all Americans, no matter where they come from, to have freedom and a happy life.

Joining us now from Washington, William Hawkins, the author of the book "Importing Revolution: Open Borders and the Radical Agenda," and Dan Stein, executive director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

Now I also want to tell you that we have tried for more than two weeks to get somebody from the Ford Foundation to give their point of view. They choose not to.

So, Mr. Hawkins, take it away. Why is this foundation so intent on having liberal border policy?

WILLIAM HAWKINS, AUTHOR< "IMPORTING REVOLUTION: OPEN BORDERS AND THE RADICAL AGENDA": Well, I think you have to go back to when they started this big funding of open border groups, and it goes back to the '60s.

Now you can look at it one way and say -- and this is the way the Ford Foundation would sell it -- is that it was a natural outgrowth of the civil-rights movement of the '60s, that the civil-rights movement was about blacks and that -- and that it would be expanded to cover other minority groups, mainly Hispanics.

But there's a fundamental difference, though, that I think goes beyond this because the blacks -- American blacks have been here for generations and generations. In fact, they have a longer lineage here than a lot of immigrant groups that we think of now as nativists.

There was other things going on in the '60s as well, though, and that was the anti-war movement, the Vietnam War, which the left saw as the West versus the Third World.

And they're looking at bringing other people in, in the case of open borders, bringing people from -- from Mexico but other Third-World countries -- mainly Mexico but other places as well -- and what they were -- saw in the '60s was that the American working class had become the middle class, had become part of the establishment.

We all remember or heard of how the hard hats, the construction workers, went out into the streets and fought against the anti-war demonstrators, against the hippies, that the working class had become middle class, had essentially, from the left's perspective, sold out.

So what do you do? Well, you bring in a new working class. You bring in a class from the Third World, which can be kept alienated, will be less educated, impoverished, less skilled, will be at the bottom of the rung of the economic ladder, and can essentially be expected to be -- to stay there, to a large extent.

This group then gives you a new constituency, a new alienated proletariat, that can then fulfill the left's dream of a vanguard of the revolution...

O'REILLY: Now, when you say revolution, do you mean socialistic revolution? Is that it?

HAWKINS: Well, a left-wing socialist revolution. It -- you know, it may translate into something milder than that.

DAN STEIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FEDERATION FOR IMMIGRATION REFORM: I don't think there's any question that the principles involved in the Ford Foundation now -- the current president Susan Berresford, her predecessor Franklin Thomas, and the people who -- on the staff who control the giving of the Ford Foundation -- have as its objective to destroy the immigration controls of this country, and they have funded organizations, litigation, ethnic lobbies, and others that have worked mightily for 30 years to dismantle and destroy U.S. interior immigration law enforcement.

The ethic is to create, of course, a multiethnic or multicultural society. They use very neg -- very objective language when they try to describe the grants, but what, clearly, Susan Berresford and others want to do is carry on an agenda that carries -- goes all the way back to Emma Goldman and the radicalization of labor movements in 1910 and '20, Bill, to create essentially a population that the left elite can control...

O'REILLY: So you're agreeing with Mr. Hawkins that this Ford Foundation, extravagantly wealthy, basically wants to create a society that steers away from capitalism...

STEIN: They're trying to bring in people who will challenge the capitalist system, in their view, and...

O'REILLY: That -- that's unbelievable to me that that would be going on, Mr. Hawkins. Can you prove it?

HAWKINS: Well -- well, one of the first things the Ford Foundation did was they created a group called MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Foundation, and this -- this was a radical alternative group to what was then the mainline Hispanic political group, which was LULAC, which was the League of United Latin American Citizens.

And it's important to know that LULAC had the world "citizen" in its title. It was a middle-class, Hispanic movement which stressed assimilation. They wanted a policy that would move their people up.

Of course, there was -- there were -- they had a civil-rights agenda. They didn't want to be discriminated against. But they wanted to move into American society, be good citizens, be Americanized, and take their place in the United States.

MALDEF was set up to counter this group, to set up a radical group, which would be opposed to assimilation, and they...

O'REILLY: You know, I -- I've got to stop you because we don't -- we don't have a lot of time, but I -- I'm hearing all of this, and I'm just astounded.

And, once again, this has nothing to do with the Ford Motor Company, so you can buy Ford projects.

But this foundation, with all of this money, is actively undermining our security here. They don't want...

STEIN: But remember, Bill -- Bill, the multicultural curriculum, which is destroying the traditional canon of American history, can't succeed unless you change the ethnic base of the society. Ford's objective is to work to radically overhaul the ethnic basis of American society to bring about the change that they desire, and the American people...

O'REILLY: Yes, I know. I know, I know, I know. But they're white rich people running this. They're not...

STEIN: No, but that's -- that's typical. A paternal elitist, leftist liberalism that requires this population you can control in order to try to manipulate it politically. This idea...

STEIN: Well, remember, Bill -- Bill, in the 1960s, Congress had to go in in response to the Ford Foundation's political funding and rewrite the law of charitable foundations to stop the Ford Foundation from giving partisan political money to the friends of Robert Kennedy, and so the last major change Congress -- Congress needs to go back and investigate the Ford Foundation.

I heard somewhere that the last Ford left the foundation back in the 1960's. I think this foundation should change their name.
A week ago, O'Reilly had Stein on leading into yesterdays segment. This is the transcript.

Ford Foundation Funding Groups Against Stricter Border Control

02/18/2003

Fox News: The O'Reilly Factor

O'REILLY: In the "Unresolved Problems" segment tonight, as you may know, a Fox News opinion dynamics poll says 79 percent of Americans favor putting troops along the borders of Mexico and Canada to help the border patrol.

But the Bush Administration, like the Clinton Administration before it, will not move. That's because there's some powerful forces against such an action.

Here to tell us about them is Mr. Dan stein, the executive director of the Federation for American Immigration reform. Mr. Stein is in Washington.

Now, I want to take this methodically so everybody understands. It's pretty complicated.

The Ford Foundation, which is a giant philanthropic group, all right, has given, in the past 30 years, $57 million to five groups that don't want crackdown on the border, is that true?

DAN STEIN, FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM: That's about right.

O'REILLY: I got the stats right here. I got all of the donations. Fifty-seven million dollars. So the Ford Foundation is funding the groups, La Rasa and other groups that I've never heard of.

Tell us about those groups. Who are they? What do they do?

STEIN: All right. The Ford Foundation funds these groups. These groups were effectively created by the Ford Foundation from about 1968 through the 1970s.

The main one is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. It is a group of grass tops -- lawyers -- radical activist lawyers, who work and litigate to try to intimidate the federal government and state governments using the courts from enforcing immigration laws in the United States. They are the primary litigation arm.

O'REILLY: All right. What...

STEIN: Ford is also...

O'REILLY: What did they want? They want what?

STEIN: What they want is a complete absence of U.S. immigration controls, particularly the U.S./Mexico border. Their strategy has been to create a hollow core strategy where the Border Patrol just becomes this thin line around the U.S. perimeter. But, once people get inside the country, they get full access to public education, benefits, driver's licenses, various documents...

O'REILLY: And are doing this under the humanitarian banner because they feel it's humane to do this?

STEIN: Well, underneath the surface of all these groups is a radical political agenda led by a group called MECHA, which works to re-establish this mythical Chicano state called Aztlan. It -- it's based on the idea that the U.S. is stolen territory.

O'REILLY: But why would the Ford Foundation buy into that kind of radicalism?

STEIN: Well, the last Ford folks from the Ford family stalked off the Ford board, I think, in the 1960s and was taken over by people with radical political agendas. Ford has been pumping hundreds of millions of dollars -- I mean, Ford is so big. They're an $11-billion foundation. They give away like three-million bucks a day, Bill.

So they have built these organizations, La Raza, MALDEF, the National Immigration Forum. They have funded the National Lawyers Guild, which are -- they're a very radical group of attorneys. And they've also funded the Immigration Project...

O'REILLY: All right.

STEIN: ... of the ACLU with the sole and primary objective of destroying U.S. immigration controls.

O'REILLY: All right. So, basically, they want open borders with Mexico. Anybody comes in...

STEIN: Not just Mexico. Anybody from anywhere. They want to make it effectively impossible for the U.S. to smoothly and efficiently control immigration.

O'REILLY: But I don't know...

STEIN: Ford's got...

O'REILLY: I don't know why...

STEIN: Ford's got a lot of money, Bill.

O'REILLY: Yes, I know they do, but I don't...

STEIN: There was...

O'REILLY: ... what -- what good does that do this country?

STEIN: It doesn't...

O'REILLY: It creates chaos and pandemonium.

STEIN: There -- well, there -- through the stream of all of this is a streak of anti-Western bias. MALDEF also works to rewrite American history...

O'REILLY: True.

STEIN: ... challenging Texas's rendition of the Alamo, for example.

O'REILLY: Hey, Mr. Stein, you ought to see how they're coming after me. I mean...

STEIN: Oh, well, you have got to be target number one...

O'REILLY: Yes, I am.

STEIN: ... because you're...

O'REILLY: I'm the biggest target in the world, and they're...

STEIN: You're telling the truth.

O'REILLY: ... because I know what they're up to.

But, anyway -- but I can't figure out what the Ford Foundation wants to accomplish by this. I still don't figure it out.

But, look, how's the -- the ACLU's in with this, too, right?

STEIN: Right. Right. Well...

O'REILLY: Does the American Civil Liberties Union want open borders?

STEIN: The ACLU says that a country like ours has the right to control its borders, but they object to virtually every single proposal of the last 30 years that would improve immigration controls in this country. They have objected, as have all these other organizations, to any effort to reduce immigration, to deport illegal aliens.

LULAC -- see, there were legitimate grassroots Latino and Mexican- American organizations, like LULAC, the League of United Latin-American Citizens, a 1925 patriotic group, promoted the idea of simulation into the American ethic.

O'REILLY: All right.

STEIN: Ford bought them basically in the 1960s, and they were transformed.

O'REILLY: You know, I've got to -- I've got to stop you because we have to take a commercial. I want to bring you back next week.

STEIN: All right.

O'REILLY: We've got to find out why the Ford Foundation is doing this. We have to nail that down.

Mr. Stein, thanks very much. We'll see you next week.

STEIN: My pleasure, Bill.

Chilling.

Board of Trustees

Paul A. Allaire
Chairman of the Board, Ford Foundation
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Xerox Corporation
Stamford, Connecticut

Alain J.P. Belda
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Alcoa Inc.
New York, New York

Afsaneh M. Beschloss
President and Chief Executive Officer
Carlyle Asset Management Group
Washington, D.C.

Anke A. Ehrhardt
Director
HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies
New York State Psychiatric Institute
New York, New York

Kathryn S. Fuller
President and Chief Executive Officer
World Wildlife Fund
Washington, D.C.

Wilmot G. James
Executive Director, Social Cohesion and Integration Research Programme
Human Sciences Research Council
Cape Town, South Africa

Yolanda Kakabadse
Executive Director
Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano
Quito, Ecuador

David T. Kearns
Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Xerox Corporation
Stamford, Connecticut
Wilma P. Mankiller
Former Principal Chief
Cherokee Nation
Park Hill, Oklahoma

Richard Moe
President
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Washington, D.C.

Yolanda T. Moses
President
The American Association for Higher Education
Washington, D.C.

Luis G. Nogales
Managing Partner
Nogales Investors, LLC
Los Angeles, California

Deval L. Patrick
Executive Vice President and General Counsel
The Coca-Cola Company
Atlanta, Georgia

Ratan N. Tata
Chairman
Tata Industries Limited
Bombay, India

Carl B. Weisbrod
President
Alliance for Downtown New York, Inc.
New York, New York

W. Richard West
Director
National Museum of the American Indian
Washington, DC

Susan V. Berresford
President
The Ford Foundation
New York, New York

top of the page

Officers

Susan V. Berresford
President

Barry D. Gaberman
Senior Vice President

Melvin L. Oliver
Vice President, Asset Building and Community Development

Alison R. Bernstein
Vice President, Education, Media, Arts & Culture
Bradford K. Smith
Vice President, Peace and Social Justice

Barron M. Tenny
Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel

Nicholas M. Gabriel
Treasurer, Comptroller and Director, Financial Services

Linda B. Strumpf
Vice President and Chief Investment Officer

Alexander Wilde
Vice President for Communications

Nancy P. Feller
Assistant Secretary and Associate General Counsel

top of the page

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.