WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, says key critics are attacking his immigration reform proposals as part of a stealth, coordinated effort seeking "zero population, sterilization, abortion, eugenics and euthanasia."

He is so sure of the effort he hijacked a House hearing Wednesday to grill critics at length about donations and assistance they receive from what he calls "anti-life" groups.

"They don't want Mexicans coming here and having big families, with babies that don't die, that grow up and participate in our society" and increase the U.S. and world population instead of dying in a Third World country, Cannon charged afterward.

Two of four groups he attacked acknowledged they seek limiting U.S. population by limiting immigration but not through such draconian methods as sterilization or euthanasia. The other two groups said they had no such population control goals.

"One word describes this: absurd," said Craig Nelsen, executive director of ProjectUSA, which has placed five billboards in Utah County attacking Cannon on immigration this election year. The signs say Cannon supports "amnesty" for illegal aliens; he says that distorts his proposal to allow illegals to earn legal status.

Nelsen said, "I think it is a common tactic of a seasoned politician, if someone is criticizing his stand, to deflect attention away from it with these sorts of absurd charges. . . . It makes us sound like a bunch of Nazis."

He said Cannon made similar charges "bordering on libel" in letters to Utah GOP Convention delegates. Cannon faces two in-party opponents at the convention.

At a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing Wednesday on immigration reform, most members were limited to a mere five minutes to ask witnesses questions. However, when a vote on the House floor was called, Cannon volunteered to skip it so he could stand and ask questions by himself. He then spent 40 minutes grilling his critics.

When Subcommittee Chairman John Hostettler, R-Ind., who opposes reform proposed by Cannon and President Bush, returned, he expressed surprise that Cannon was still asking questions. He took back the gavel and joked maybe he might not let Cannon ask questions for the next eight hearings to make up for time he used.

Cannon asked questions attempting to show that groups such as NumbersUSA, the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and the Diversity Alliance for a Sustainable America (DASA) — all opponents of his reforms — had financial or start-up support from "anti-life" groups, and specifically a retired Michigan doctor named John Tanton.