When I think of "essential" workers in America, the smear merchants of the Anti-Defamation League are at the bottom of the barrel. For decades, they've demonized conservatives and Christians as agents of "hate" and treated our very existence as incitements to violence. The ADL's manufactured outrage machine has broadened its target list to anyone remotely critical of Israel for any reason, President Donald Trump, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, "America First" college students, innocuous hand gestures, cartoon frogs and anyone who dares to think or write that "It's OK to be white."

Now, in the wake of the "Chinese flu" pandemic, ADL is lining up with all the other federal bailout vultures clamoring for free money. This week, the group issued a statement calling on Congress to include "relief for charities" in any COVID-19 legislation. "In times of crisis," ADL self-righteously urged, "nonprofits are on the front lines, ready to respond and serve communities across the nation -- but funds are needed to continue doing so." The "relief package" pushed by ADL and several hundred other groups demands $60 billion in "emergency stimulus funding to support our work... during this time of crisis and need."

What a crock. The primary "front lines" ADL occupies are on the battlefields against American sovereignty and free speech. By my count, the open borders zealots of ADL have filed 17 amicus briefs in our courts supporting obstruction of Trump's immigration enforcement and national security measures. The group is particularly proud of its brief in Trump v. Hawaii, in which it "led a coalition of six Jewish organizations using our unique moral voice to passionately argue against the so-called Muslim ban, citing three historical examples when our nation later recognized that we were wrong to turn our back, including denying refuge to Jews fleeing the Nazis." The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the travel restrictions and affirmed the broad plenary powers of the executive branch over immigration.

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On top of the $60 billion ADL wants for itself and its ideological fellow travelers (including tax-funded refugee resettlement contractors Catholic Charities, Church World Service and Lutheran Services), the group called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week to include Medicaid coverage and tax rebates for illegal immigrants in her Chinese flu rescue package. ADL's full-throated promotion of America's demographic transformation through mass migration stands in stark contrast to its unapologetic defense of Israel's restrictionist immigration policies and militarized borders.

But heaven forbid you point out the hypocrisy.

Instead of fighting defamation, the ADL traffics in false accusations of anti-Semitism under the guise of "Never Again" repeating the Holocaust. Putting American citizens over hundreds of thousands of Third World and Muslim refugees is "xenophobic," the ADL decries, and would lead to a repeat of World War II Nazism. Hanging banners from highway overpasses calling for our government to "secure borders" or "defend American workers" is a "white supremacist tactic." And pointing out the obvious nexus between open borders and disease will put you on the dreaded ADL "extremism" radar.

Yes, the ADL prides itself on "monitor(ing) and report(ing) on the rhetoric of anti-immigration activists and their supporters... (who) have long promoted the notion of immigrants as bringing disease, crime and environmental problems into the United States." Instead of refuting the facts, they just point, sputter and smear. In 2009, during the swine flu outbreak traced to Mexico, I wrote on my blog that "the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S." was the "result of uncontrolled immigration." ADL swooped in with a raging condemnation of me and others who "demonize Mexicans and immigrants, blaming them for the spread of the virus."

ADL's virtue-signalers went on to warn that "(a)nti-immigrant groups and some mainstream media commentators are using the outbreak to advance their prejudiced views and agendas, warning that the virus in the U.S. is the result of illegal immigration."

It's not "prejudice." It's reality. Every sovereign nation on every continent, including Israel, has now closed its borders to foreign travelers and trespassers to head off this global pandemic. If we had learned from swine flu history 11 years ago, perhaps the current outbreak would not have resulted in such a delayed and addled response mired in deadly political correctness. But the ADL is still conducting business as usual during this latest open borders contagion, blithely attacking "anti-Semitic, racist tropes" as the real public health menace. Really.

According to its most recent financial statements, ADL and the ADL Foundation raked in nearly $80 million in operating revenues in 2018, with net assets at the worth more than $92 million. Fear-mongering is big business. The idea that ADL's professional character assassins serve any vital role in assisting vulnerable American citizens in need of food, shelter or medical assistance is pure chutzpah. The notion that they should be entitled to a single penny of taxpayer subsidies from American workers being laid off in droves is an affront to decency. Crying "racism" and "diversity" to fill coffers and silence political opponents exacerbated the current catastrophe. ADL's treachery should be reviled, not rewarded.

Michelle Malkin's email address is MichelleMalkinInvestigates@protonmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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