Glenn Spencer, Anti-Hispanic Bigot and Anti-Semite, Speaks to Arizona State Senate

Glenn Spencer, the head of American Border Patrol, an anti-Hispanic hate group, spoke in front of the Arizona State Senate’s Border Security Committee on March 1, 2012. Spencer, who regularly demonizes Hispanics and immigrants, presents himself as an authority on immigration.  Last year, he attempted to speak to the same committee but was “uninvited” after protests from the Anti-Defamation League and others. Spencer’s appearance this year came as a surprise since his name had reportedly not been placed on the committee’s agenda.

Spencer regularly does video surveillance of the Mexican-American border from his ranch in Sierra Vista, Arizona, and maintains two Web sites about his activities. Many of the articles on his Web sites contain anti-Mexican rhetoric and promote the “Reconquista” or Aztlan conspiracy theory that Mexicans in this country are plotting to take over the southwestern part of the United States.

Spencer has appeared at white supremacist events in the past.  In addition, he has directed his bigotry at Jews. In December 2008, Spencer wrote an article on his Web site entitled “Is Jew-Controlled Hollywood Brainwashing Americans?” In the article, Spencer claimed to have many Jewish friends who “have been extremely instrumental in fighting illegal immigration.” However, he asserted,  “this small handful of patriotic Americans are far outnumbered by liberal Jews who now have total control over our media,” adding that “with my memories of the Hollywood elite, I think it is now time that Americans be forewarned that they are probably subject to clever pro-illegal alien propaganda every time they watch something produced in Hollywood.”

Spencer has also been linked to border vigilante extremist Shawna Forde. Forde received the death penalty in 2011 for her role in the May 2009 murders of Raul Junior Flores and his nine-year-old daughter Brisenia during a home invasion in Arivaca, Arizona.  Authorities arrested Forde for the murders in June 2009, shortly after she left Spencer’s property where she had stopped to send emails from her laptop.  Spencer had apparently allowed Forde to live on his property in 2008, but claimed that he told her afterwards that she was no longer welcome at the ranch.