So apparently the interest group that drafted the bill, and which is helping draft others in four southern states, has some creepy connections.

IRLI's website says it fights to protect the "legal rights, privileges, and property of U.S. citizens and their communities from injuries and damages caused by unlawful immigration." It is affiliated with a group called the Federation for American Immigration Immigration Reform (FAIR). Advocacy group The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks domestic hate groups, is unambiguous in labelling FAIR racist and dangerous. An investigation in 2007 revealed that:

The founder, chief ideologue and long-time funder of FAIR [John Tanton] is a racist. Key staff members have ties to white supremacist groups, some are members, and some have spoken at hate group functions. FAIR has accepted more than $1 million from a racist foundation devoted to studies of race and IQ, and to eugenics - the pseudo-science of breeding a better human race that was utterly discredited by the Nazi euthanasia program. It spreads racist conspiracy theories.

The group has also consulted with Vlaams Belang, a racist Belgian political party that used to be called Vlaams Block. Until the Belgian Supreme court banned it under that name for xenophobia. Which might explain why, according to Think Progress again, FAIR's legal arm, IRLI, has been behind some of the most racist-seeming pieces of legislation on the books. It charges $300 per hour to train Sheriff Joe Arpaio's men, who make sweeps for illegal immigrants, on immigration law.

All a bit hysterical, but it bears closer examination, certainly.