Anti-immigrant groups say Latinos want to take over U.S. Southwest - or - Southwest ‘reconquista’ rhetoric raises anti-immigration hackles

“Mainstream immigration advocacy groups - as well as academics and experts on nearly all sides of the illegal immigration issue - dismiss these “reconquista” notions as rhetorical, not to be taken seriously.

But such talk appears to be galvanizing foes of immigration. Anti-immigrant activists and some conservatives have seized on such rhetoric to claim that a conspiracy is afoot among illegal immigrants to reconquer the Southwest.

Jim Boyd, for example, ran a losing campaign for City Council in Nashville, Tenn., on the single idea of stopping an “invasion” of Mexicans who he said want to seize much of the Southwest and secede from the United States.”

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