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The Center for Immigration Studies, one of the country�s most
visible anti-immigration groups, has taken its feud with a
nonprofit civil rights organization to court, alleging that its
inclusion on the Southern Poverty Law Center�s list of known
hate groups violates a federal law originally passed to target
the mob.

�SPLC and its leaders have every right to oppose our work on
immigration, but they do not have the right to label us a hate
group and suggest we are racists,� said Mark Krikorian,
executive director of Center for Immigration Studies. �The
Center for Immigration Studies is fighting back against the SPLC
smear campaign and its attempt to stifle debate through
intimidation and name-calling.�

In the complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Columbia, the Center for Immigration Studies alleges
that the group�s inclusion on SPLC�s list amounts to wire fraud,
and that it has cost CIS at least $10,000 in material damages.
The complaint also alleges that the purported fraud violates the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly
known as RICO, a federal law originally written to target
organized crime but now most frequently used to sue businesses
over false statements transmitted through the mail or
electronically.

�This is a scheme to falsely call CIS a hate group,� Howard
Foster, the Center for Immigration Studies� attorney, told The
Daily Beast. �They�re never going to stop attacking CIS as a
hate group.�

The complaint, filed on Wednesday morning, alleges that the SPLC
has maintained the group�s presence on its list of hate groups
�despite the Defendants� knowledge that CIS did not fit SPLC�s
�hategroup definition.�� Naming Richard Cohen, president of the
Southern Poverty Law Center, and Heidi Beirich�who oversees the
SPLC�s annual survey of U.S. hate groups�the group seeks
financial damages and an injunction to bar the SPLC �from
further racketeering activity.�

�CIS regularly opposes higher levels of immigration for sound
public policy reasons, not because of any animus toward
immigrants as human beings,� the group said in a release. �CIS
hopes this lawsuit will cause Mr. Cohen and Ms. Beirich to turn
their attention to actual cases of racial animus.�

Despite its fiery language, experts on RICO told The Daily Beast
that CIS�s complaint may not hold much legal water.

�There are pretty big issues with this complaint,� said Jeffrey
E. Grell, an attorney and expert on racketeering law. �This
basically all hinges on them being called a hate group by the
SPLC� but an opinion isn�t fraudulent.�

�It�s just kinda goofy,� Grell continued. �I don�t think it has
a lot of merit, mostly because I dont think it�s fraud� The
Southern Poverty Law Center doesn�t say that [its definition] is
the only basis by which you can be defined as a hate group.�

�There�s so much garbage that gets filed under RICO,� Grell
added. �If I was a judge, I would dismiss it.�

Even the lawyer who wrote the statute told The Daily Beast that
the complaint is �slim on details,� particularly for a RICO suit.

�A quick read says one thing: they are in D.C. asking for
damages and an injunction. RICO is not generally thought to
contain equity relief,� said Professor G. Robert Blakey, a law
professor at Notre Dame Law School and the literal author of the
Organized Crime Control Act of 1970, which includes RICO. �Not
too thoughtful.�

The SPLC has included CIS in its watch list of hate groups since
2016, following what it called the group�s �repeated circulation
of white nationalist and antisemitic writers.�

�It has a history of making racially inflammatory statements,
associating with white nationalists, and circulating the work of
racist writers,� Cohen told The Daily Beast. �Its lawsuit is
nothing more than a heavy-handed effort to try to silence us
from exercising our First Amendment right to express our
opinion. We look forward to defending ourselves in court.�

But the Center for Immigration Studies alleges that it doesn�t
fit the SPLC�s stated definition of a hate group, which is
described as �an organization that�has beliefs or practices that
attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their
immutable characteristics.�

�SPLC knows that CIS is not a hate group, by its own definition,
yet it calls it a hate group,� Foster said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-immigration-group-files-rico- suit-against-southern-poverty-law-center-over-hate-group-label
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