"The Race" to win America: La Raza ("The Race") presented a moderate image at their recent Los Angeles conference, but the group's ultimate goal is a radical reconquest of the southwestern U.S. for Mexico.

"Anti-immigration forces are afraid.... They are fighting a losing battle and the strategy of fear will fail," remarked an energized Janet Murguia, president and CEO of the National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

"Anti-immigration demagogues are on the wrong side of history and America," concluded Mrs. Murguia during a lunchtime talk at the NCLR four-day annual conference on July 8-11, 2006 in Los Angeles, California.

A quick click of your computer mouse button will provide a description, from the NCLR's website, that they are "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.... Founded in 1968, NCLR is a private, nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, D.C." What is not seen in this official description is the powerful underpinnings that make this organization such a brute political force, as it works side by side with both major political parties and America's richest corporations.

The 2006 annual NCLR conference in Los Angeles brought together a bipartisan lineup of such high-profile speakers as former President Bill Clinton, Republican presidential political strategist Karl Rove, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). With the sponsorship of Bank of America and the backing of corporations such as Wal-Mart, The Walt Disney Company, Ford Motor Company, etc., NCLR has kept up the illusion of a mainstream civil rights organization. But the NCLR is anything but mainstream: it has been very vocal on their support for driver's licenses for illegal aliens, guest-worker programs (amnesty), and opposition to increased border security.

Top Republicans and Democrats, corporate America, and La Raza are locked together in unison and marching with crossed arms toward the starting line as they prepare for an electoral foot race to determine not just the fate of the U.S. Congress but of our American culture.

The only problem is that middle class America has been disqualified and is sitting silently on the sidelines.

On Your Mark, Get Set, Go!

"La Raza" is Spanish for "The Race," and as separatist as that sounds, that did not deter President Bush's closest confidant and chief political strategist, Karl Rove, from being one of the keynote speakers on the last day of the NCLR conference. Mr. Rove scattered his talk with the political buzzwords "comprehensive immigration reform," which means in both Spanish and English translation: amnesty.

Mr. Rove made the temporary migration from the nation's capitol to the City of Angels to remind the La Raza participants that the current administration supports a guest-worker program and earned legalization for undocumented immigrants. Throughout his 18-minute talk, there were scattered boos and hisses from the audience, but mainly in regard to the Bush administration's stance on the war in Iraq, not in regard to the White House's immigration policy.

Will the White House get away with giving this tacit endorsement to a radical immigration group that calls itself "The Race"? This action certainly flies in the face of the Bush campaign slogan in 2000 (that surely Mr. Rove crafted) in which then-Governor Bush promised to be a "uniter, not a divider." White House pandering to the La Raza revolutionaries also belies the administration's current efforts to shore up its conservative base by proclaiming border security to be a top-priority issue.

The NCLR has been one of the most militant advocates of open borders and full political rights for illegal aliens. The administration's support for the La Raza agenda should be a dead giveaway that the high-profile rotation of a few thousand National Guard troops to the border and the sudden flurry of Customs and Border Patrol raids are simply election-year tactics aimed at winning back the Republican Party's "loyal core" that have abandoned President Bush because of his refusal to protect the border and enforce the law.

Following Mr. Rove to the NCLR podium was New Mexico governor and former Clinton administration official Bill Richardson. He apologetically explained he was forced to declare a state of emergency in regard to illegal immigration in his state due to the federal government's inability to enforce federal law.

"America is not a nation of walls," exclaimed the governor in reference to H.R. 4437, which would beef up border security and not grant amnesty to illegals. He closed his impassioned talk with the cry, "My roots are with La Raza!"

The final keynote speaker was NCLR President and CEO Janet Murguia, and she gave a mandate to the La Raza faithful. She outlined her plan in which she named "The Four Cycles of Citizenship":

1. Mobilize the youth

2. Naturalize immigrants

3. Massive voter registration

4. Get out the vote

Recent events have clearly shown these four NCLR cycles in action--from chaos in the streets (mobilize the youth) to calls for amnesty in the halls of Congress (naturalize immigrants). In addition, according to Representative Charlie Norwood of Georgia, the NCLR took in $15.2 million in federal grants last year alone and undisclosed amounts were for get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions (voter registration). Thus, through these federal grants and the millions of dollars more that "The Race" radicals receive from tax-exempt foundations (such as Ford and Rockefeller), the U.S. taxpayers are subsidizing NCLR's aggressive efforts to recruit and register to vote millions of the demonstrators who recently filled America's streets, chanting anti-American slogans and carrying Mexican flags.

Presenting a False Face

At this conference, La Raza's top officials obviously went to great effort to present a respectable, "mainstream" image. They successfully suppressed their most vocally militant elements, recognizing full well that the openly radical face that had appeared during many of the national marches this past spring had been counterproductive, sending an alarm through Middle America and causing skittish politicians in both parties to run for cover.

However, La Raza is anything but mainstream. Its leaders, since its founding, have included some of the most extreme advocates of "Aztlan" (reclaiming the southwestern U.S. for Mexico) as well as vocal allies of Cuba's Fidel Castro, the Sandinista (FSLN) terrorists of Nicaragua, the Farabundo Marti (FMLN) terrorists of El Salvador, and Venezuela's current Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez.

Also very troubling is the NCLR's very cozy alliance with (and official ties with) two institutions of the Mexican government that are aimed at drastically changing U.S. immigration and citizenship laws: the Foundation for Mexican-American Solidarity and the Institute for Mexicans Abroad. The government of Vicente Fox has been operating through these institutions to politicize and mobilize Mexican nationals and Hispanic U.S. citizens to carry forward his open-borders policies. The NCLR's open working relationship with these fronts for the Mexican government (and alleged funding from the Fox government) should spark a congressional inquiry into whether the NCLR should be classified as an "agent" of a foreign power.

Held in conjunction with the annual La Raza conference was the Latino Expo USA in which corporate America was proudly on display. Exhibitors included Wal-Mart, Ford Motor Company, UPS, The Walt Disney Company, State Farm Insurance, Nordstrom, J.C. Penney, Citibank, Lowes, etc. Furthermore, government entities such as the U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Army, the Central Intelligence Agency, and even the National Security Agency had exhibit booths.

The conference ended on Tuesday afternoon with Latino, Black, and Asian-American leaders gathered in a town hall meeting to discuss a more viable solution for a better working relationship amongst each other.

In keeping with the conference's racist base, the sound bite phenom known as the Reverend Jesse Jackson dipped his finger in the political carafe once again to stir up the race debate by claiming that not enough people of color are present on cable news programs such as MSNBC, FOX, CNN, etc.

"All shows, all night, all white," was the reverend's response to the lack of minorities on television news.

Moderator Tavis Smiley, a Black American, kindly reminded Reverend Jackson of a news show he hosts on PBS.

Cesar Perales, president and general counsel of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund (PRLDEF), contributed to the forum by condemning recently passed local laws, such as the one enacted by the city of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, that fines landlords who rent to illegal immigrants, suspends the licenses of business owners who hire them, and declares English the official language of the city. These laws, said Perales, are the desperate, futile efforts of a "threatened white majority."

With the support of the Republican and Democrat Parties, corporate America and federal funding, it seems La Raza is poised to have a huge impact on the coming elections.

As I was preparing to leave the conference I stopped a young, vibrant intern staffer to inquire about the panel of speakers. I asked her what La Raza meant to her and she cheerfully replied, "Victory!"

America, it's time to lace up your sneakers.

Sam Antonio is the John Birch Society's national spokesman on immigration. An interview of him appears on page 21.