Capitol Correspondent
EAST LANSING– The Michigan State University chapter of Young Americans for Freedom has a lineup of speakers for the school year which includes three speakers with ties to white supremacy groups. The group will host Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, on Oct. 4; Chris Simcox of the Minutemen Civilian Defense Corps is scheduled on Nov. 13, and sometime in spring the group will host Jim Gilchrist of the Minutemen Project.
MSU YAF was listed as a hate group in April by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It is the first university supported hate group the civil rights organization is aware of. SPLC is the nation's leader in tracking and monitoring hate groups and its quarterly publication Intelligence Report is sent to 50,000 law enforcement agents.
MSU YAF chairman Kyle Bristow has links to the white supremacy movement himself. He has until recently co-administered a Facebook group.
The Center for Immigration studies was founded by John Tanton. CIS was a natural outgrowth of the anti-immigration group the Federation for American Immigration Reform( FAIR).
"In California 2030, the non-Hispanic Whites and Asians will own the property, have the good jobs and education, speak one language and be mostly Protestant and 'other,'" wrote Tanton in a 1986 memo. "The Blacks and Hispanics will have the poor jobs, will lack education, own little property, speak another language and will be mainly Catholic."
Simcox visited the MSU campus in April. His appearance lead to protests and the arrests of 5 Hispanic students. During the event, Simcox taunted Raul Perez as a "gang banger." He also referred to protestors as "riff-raff."
According to documents received under Freedom of Information Act requests to MSU, prior to his April 2007 appearance at MSU, Simcox sent an email to an unidentified Hispanic organizer on campus, warning her to stay away, and including a picture of what is apparently a bloodied and dead Hispanic male. While the email and photo were provided to MSU administrators, no action has been taken against Simcox.
In addition to this Michigan event, Simcox originally claimed he saw the Chinese Army operating military exercises on the Mexican border following the 9-11 attacks, Mark Potok of the SPLC said. Simcox has since changed the rhetoric to refer instead to drug cartels. Gilchrist was originally aligned with Simcox, but broke off to create his own Minutemen Project. His organization allegedly allows white supremacists to operate in border control operations. Although Gilchrist has condemned white supremacy, he has also defended it.
In an interview with Fox News' Alan Colmes on April 5, Gilchrist said, " I have — Alan, I have no control over someone posting an e-mail. I know what you're talking about. I've been to that Stormfront ( a white supremacy site) website. I have put a warning on our website — you are not welcome here if you're a member of any supremacist group, whether it be of any color, race or creed."
"Alan, there are supremacist groups out there of all races, colors and creeds," Gilchrist continued. "It's not just white supremacists. Why are you picking on them? There are brown. There are purple. There are red. "
