The locally based Colcom Foundation sponsors causes throughout Pittsburgh and it’s not uncommon to see its name posted all over the region, including the stage at Peoples Gas Holiday Market in Market Square.
But the foundation’s central cause is more controversial than that: Colcom Foundation gives millions to anti-immigrant groups; the same groups that spread anti-immigrant rhetoric similar to what alleged Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers espoused before carrying out the mass shooting last month.
And now some advocates are calling out Colcom’s sponsorship, particularly at public and popular locales.
The Colcom Foundation’s name is currently plastered on the stage at Market Square’s Peoples Gas Holiday Market. The foundation has donated the majority of its multi-millions in funds to anti-immigrant groups, many of which frame immigration to the U.S. as an “invasion.” Bowers called immigrants from Central America “invaders.”
According to tax forms, the Colcom Foundation gave $19 million to anti-immigrant groups in 2016, mostly to three large organizations: Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Center for Immigration Studies, and Numbers USA. Anti-immigrant groups received 58 percent of Colcom’s funding in 2016. And those groups are still listed as beneficiaries on Colcom’s website for 2018 giving.
Monica Ruiz works with immigrant-support group Casa San Jose in Brookline. She says Colcom’s prominent sponsorship is “absolutely terrible.” She is dismayed that an anti-immigrant sponsor was given prominent placement in the holiday market.
“Did they forget that Jesus was an immigrant? It’s Christmas,” says Ruiz. “This is not the type of message to send to the city.”
Ruiz says websites like FAIR and Numbers USA are often used by immigration restrictionists to defend anti-immigrant proposals, even though those sources are known to skew facts and misrepresent data. “They just fuel this right-wing agenda they have that [says] immigrants are bad,” said Ruiz.
The Southern Poverty Law Center told the Post-Gazette in 2015 that if Colcom wasn’t funding anti-immigrant groups, the anti-immigrant movement might not exist.
The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP), who organizes the holiday market, issued a statement to City Paper in response to this story, but didn’t detail any changes in policy concerning the Colcom Foundation. PDP spokesperson Leigh White said the Holiday Market provides for local businesses, makers, artisans and “an increasingly diverse array of global merchants.”
“The Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership’s mission is to cultivate a vital Downtown neighborhood, as a key component of our City and Region’s development,” White said in a statement. “Our efforts are made possible in large part by the support of the philanthropic and corporate community, as well as collaborations with cultural, community, and municipal partners from throughout the region. Colcom Foundation has supported numerous PDP initiatives, including as a founding sponsor of the Holiday Market.”
The Pittsburgh chapter of the Democratic Socialist of America is condemning the Colcom Foundation and its sponsorship of holiday festivities.
“Pittsburghers who are appalled by family separations, neo-fascist [U.S. immigration official] raids, and gas cans being shot at asylum seekers also should be appalled by the Colcom Foundation,” wrote Pittsburgh DSA in a statement. “Colcom channeling tens of millions toward creating the national anti-immigration movement demonstrates the absolute lack of humanity at the heart of this capitalist charity. Pittsburgh DSA stands in solidarity with immigrants and welcomes all to our communities. And Colcom sponsorship of Downtown festivities is nothing if not unwelcoming.”
The Colcom Foundation did not return a request for comment on this story.
FAIR and CIS have been labeled hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center. FAIR was founded in the 1970s by John Tanton, a white nationalist. In 1993, Tanton wrote “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.” Tanton also played a role in initial funding for CIS, which formed in 1986. Immigration-restriction group NumbersUSA, has not been designated a hate group by SPLC, but the organization has several ties to Tanton, who mentored NumbersUSA’s director.
FAIR has lobbied state legislatures to implement hard-line immigration laws, including an Arizona law championed by former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court when he refused to stop racially profiling Latinos.
The group also backed Hazleton, Pa.’s ordinance to bar landlords from renting to undocumented immigrants. That law was passed by U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Hazleton) when he was Hazleton mayor. The Hazleton law was eventually ruled unconstitutional.
Colcom has a significant presence in Pittsburgh. Known for advocating for environmental causes, including the controversial topic of population control, Colcom’s name is also ingrained in the walkway to the Frick Environmental Center at Frick Park.
Arguments against overpopulation are often used by immigration restrictionists like FAIR as a way to persuade people to their cause. As news site Vox pointed out in April, overpopulation is not a huge issue in the U.S., as its population of 325 million could easily feed 400 million at the current level of agricultural production. Additionally, the U.S. has a number of very large states with very few people. If the U.S. was populated as densely as Europe, the country’s population would be around a billion.
Colcom’s mission statement reads: “The primary mission of Colcom Foundation is to foster a sustainable environment to ensure quality of life for all Americans by addressing major causes and consequences of overpopulation and its adverse effects on natural resources.”
Other local groups to receive funding from Colcom include Allegheny Land Trust, Bike Pittsburgh, Grow Pittsburgh, the National Aviary, Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and PennEnvironment Research and Policy Center.
Editor’s note: The original version of this article erroneously stated that NumbersUSA was designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The story has been updated to better reflect NumbersUSA’s role in anti-immigration advocacy. Article also originally misstated that John Tanton formed Center for Immigration Studies. He helped with initial funding, but did not found the group.
This article appears in November 21, 2018 – Pittsburgh City Paper.
Mr. Deto
I am an immigrant whose family waited in line for years in a DP camp to be accepted by the US. We all learned English, obeyed US laws, and became US citizens. My father always told me to never forget your ethnicity but always to remember that the USA took in our family.
I am offended by you referring to people who violate our immigration laws as immigrants. They are migrants.
Please don’t insult actual immigrants who who obeyed laws and waited years in camps waiting enter legally.
Here is the thing, I am a legal immigrant. Not one day I was illegal in this great country. I went thru poverty but I never took a dime of the state or federal govt. I paid my taxes every year, I pay for my own housing, health insurance, car insurance and after all that, ate whatever I could with the little money leftover. Being in America is not a right, it is a privilege. People that comes illegally to this country, don’t pay taxes, have children so they can have Medicaid, public housing, welfare and food stamps and money every month. I have seen illegal immigrants sending 2 to 3 thousand dollars every month to their countries, I can only afford 140 for my father who was robbed of his retirement. I am trying to figure out how they can send that much money and not paying taxes, getting Medicaid thru their children, free public housing, welfare and food stamps and money. Did you really thing those things are free? Where do you think those benefits come from? Right! Taxes.
I am a Latino and I am very furious at people coming illegally to this country to rape us of benefits that we have work so hard for decades. I am sorry that you are poor and that your country is full of violence but solve your countries issues by voting for the right people in govt so the money that US gives you does not get stolen. With that money you should be able to have safety, security and prosperity and no need for you to exploit or come to my Country.
So they say immigrants are here to do the jobs that Americans do not want to do? Not true. I know many Americans including me that work lawns, babysitting, odd jobs and work in farms. We do pay taxes because its the law. We charge a bit more because we pay taxes, we need to make a living. Having people charging less for those jobs only signifies that they do not declare their income thus do not pay taxes while getting benefits like the ones mentioned before. People that comes to this country crossing the border illegally, they break the law. You can call me a hater, racist or whatever you wish but this is not about hate or race but fairness and justice. The immigration laws are not put in place so you can come and break them. One cannot come to this Country and claim asylum and only 20% of the claimants show up to court. Your caravan of asylum seekers can wait in Mexico until they get their chance to court. I am calling immigration every time I see companies hiring illegal aliens, specially the ones with fake id’s. In case you didn’t know this, that is a crime.
I have grace for people but I don’t have it for people that abuses the system legal or illegal. I tell you what, I would have respect for the immigrants, even thought they broke the law the moment the crossed the border illegally, if they pay for their housing, pay taxes via TIN number, pay for their health insurance and of their children, pay for their housing, pay for car insurance and do not use any, whatsoever, state of federal benefits that do not belong to them. If they do that, I will respect them.
What a hit piece on a foundation that does such good work. Shame on the City Paper.
Staff needs to educate itself on “limits to growth.” A country has a right, in fact a duty, to ensure it has an immigration policy with integrity that is fair for the citizens of the country and the immigrants.
Don’t try looking for boogeymen where there are none. There certainly enough real problems if you’re looking to do actual investigative journalism.