KKK Steps Into Northern Virginia Immigration Debate
Associated Press
Sep 6, 2007


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The Ku Klux Klan has added a new twist to an already rancorous debate over illegal immigration in northern Virginia, distributing anti-immigrant fliers that have drawn condemnation from people on both sides of the issue.

The Compton, Ark.-based Ku Klux Klan, one of many groups that uses the name, left the leaflets in front of homes in one Manassas neighborhood over the weekend. The fliers, which were wrapped around an old issue of a Klan newspaper, warned of "gangs, drugs and pornography" brought by immigrants, said Travis Pierce, the group's national membership director.

The literature arrived two months after Prince William County, which surrounds Manassas, passed a resolution that seeks to deny many public services to undocumented immigrants and boost the immigration enforcement powers of county police. Latino groups have protested the measure with a weeklong boycott of nonimmigrant businesses and a march. They also are planning a work stoppage next month.

The group that has been leading the protests, Mexicans Without Borders, said the leaflets showed that the resolution had created "an environment that is hostile to people of color."

"Over the last few months anti-immigrant rhetoric has been spewing from the mouths of citizens and politicians alike, and has opened the door to racist organizations that share their goals," the group said in a statement.

But Greg Letiecq, leader of the group Help Save Manassas, which pushed for the Prince William resolution, said the Klan occasionally showed up in the area long before his group was formed.

He called the group's message "goofy."

"When news reports go out there that groups on the far left are making a lot of noise, it's invariably going to draw the kooks on the far right to come out," Letiecq said.

"People in Prince William County don't want to have anything to do with the Klan," he added.

Letiecq said he found it odd that the fliers were distributed on Weems Road, which he called "a culturally and ethnically diverse street."

"A number of African Americans ended up getting those fliers," he said.

Tim Neumann, a spokesman for the Manassas Police Department, said one complaint was filed about the fliers, but police could not do anything because no laws were broken.

Pierce, the Klan official, said the fliers were distributed in many parts of Virginia and in West Virginia by members who live in the region.

The text of the flier, as provided by Pierce, warned: "mexico is invading the United States and soon will demand we cede the southwestern states to their control, they already wave the flag of

Mexico in our faces! They are not here to assimilate, they are here to form their own nation. And unless we get busy right NOW they will succeed!"

The flier instructed people to send a $10 check to the Klan for more information.

"We didn't want to offend anyone," Pierce said. "We just wanted to get the message out there."