KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach has a new Breitbart column out, and in it he cites a man whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has called a member of the Holocaust denial movement.
Kobach's piece makes the case that immigrants commit a disproportionate share of crimes. He uses a San Francisco murder trial of an immigrant to launch into an argument that "illegal aliens" make up a disproportionate share of the U.S. prison population, are behind 53 percent of burglaries in border states, and comprise 75 percent of people on the most wanted lists in L.A., Phoenix and Albuquerque.
His argument has been debunked by numerous studies over multiple years. In fact, studies have found immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than people born in the U.S., The New York Times reported.
In one of Kobach's claims, he links to an article written by Peter Gemma, who also argues that immigrant crime rates are disproportionately high.
Gemma is affiliated with the Constitution Party. Before that, the SPLC reports, Gemma worked for the Council of Conservative Citizens _ "a group that has complained that non-white immigration was turning the U.S. population into a 'slimy brown mass of glop' and described black people as a retrograde species of humanity.'"
Gemma also helped coordinate talks, give speeches and write reviews for groups affiliated with the American Holocaust denial movement, the SPLC reports.
He wrote in the article linked by Kobach: "The invasion of illegal aliens has established a bloody battlefront in the form of street gangs."
He added a quote that evokes white supremacy from 2000 presidential candidate Pat Buchanan: "The crisis of the West is a collapsing culture and vanishing peoples ... mounts the greatest invasion in history of the world. If we do not shake off our paralysis, the West comes to an end."
Gemma once reviewed a book in the Occidental Quarterly, the SPLC writes, a publication that stated white supremacist leanings on its site in the past: "The Occidental Quarterly ... is a journal devoted to the ethnic, racial, and cultural heritage that forms the foundation of Western Civilization. It unapologetically defends the cultural, ethnic, and racial interests of Western European peoples."
The author Gemma was reviewing, David Irving, was called "anti-Semitic and racist" by a judge, according to the Guardian. Irving grossly downplayed what happened at Auschwitz, likening it to "Disneyland."
The Anti-Defamation League also identified Gemma, calling him an "anti-immigrant extremist" and "white supremacist." Gemma worked on Buchanan's presidential campaign, the ADL reported.
Media Matters for America first reported on the connection between Kobach's article and Gemma.
The Kansas City Star attempted to contact Kobach for this article, but his spokeswoman's voicemail was full. Kobach did not respond on Twitter.
