Emmer, Quist get top marks from anti-immigrant group

Of course they would get top marks from an anti-immigrant group. They hate people that don’t look like them.

Mr. Obama needs to open our borders to all and to not discriminate against anyone who comes to our country.

This is what happened in the early years of the USA and is why we used to be a great nation. We need to get back to our roots on this.

Why don’t you report about MINN-SIR’s organizational structure (check the Secretary of State’s business records), its tax status and the number of members?

Does the group issue an annual report? What its annual budget? Is it in any way transparent?

The media trots out Ruthie Hendrycks as if she leads a movement, but never looks into this organization on any serious level. Instead, readers are invited to conclude that Hendrycks is no different than the leader of groups that actually are accountable to donors and the public.

“Would you agree with the statement, that voting is a privilege not a right and that it should be reserved for American Citizens and Legal Residents only?”

Hang on, the anti-immigration group is saying legal residents should be able to vote without being citizens?

I love Ruthie, she made helped launch my career as a public speaker! http://bit.ly/bgOdgX

So who is responsible for the rampant inbreeding that appears to have taken place in the Emmer and Quist families. How else can their ilk be explained?

One more bit of fact-checking: MINN-SIR did not grow up of the Minnesota Minutemen.

The MINNSIR “group” was started first by Hendrycks and registered as a fictitious name ( i.e. Ruthie Hendrycks doing business as [DBA]) Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform).

Later, it allied itself with the Minuteman Project, which in this state morphed into the “Minnesota Minutemen” (not to be confused with the pro-sports group) in 2006. In an April 30, 2006 Strib article in Nexis, staff writer Jean Hopfensberger reported:

“Hendrycks announced that her organization will become the state chapter of the Minuteman Project, in part because she has been a member of the project since its inception. The group eventually will work to get stronger security along the Canadian border, she said.”

The Associate Press reported in coverage of the same rally:

“A small Minnesota organization calling itself Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform headlined the rally but was joined by the Minuteman Project, a national volunteer group that patrols the border to keep out illegal immigrants. . . .

The group was formed a month ago and has about 150 members, Hendrycks said. . . .

. . . Eichler said his group [The Minuteman Project] has now adopted Minnesotans Seeking Immigration Reform as a chapter and was working toward patrolling parts of the northern border.

Two days earlier, the Strib’s Hopfensberger reported in advance of the rally:

“In the tiny town of Hanska, Minn., just outside New Ulm, Hendrycks is appealing directly to national groups, such as the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and the Minuteman Project, a volunteer group that patrols the border to keep out illegal immigrants. She has asked the more established groups to link to her new organization from their websites, and she has asked those groups to send speakers for the Minneapolis rally.”

Why not have the text of the entire questionnaire available and let readers judge for themselves if the group is “anti-immigrant” or not instead of editorializing? If objectivity isn’t the policy at the Independent it should say so in your “policies.”

By the way, what exactly is anti-immigrant about wanting to follow the current law allowing only citizens to vote?

Copyright law precludes us from reproducing the entire document. Also, it’s not online at the MINN-SIR site so we couldn’t link to it.