A Chicago civil rights activist says ties to white supremacy indicate a growing national movement to curb illegal immigration isn't really about immigrants.

Devin Burghart, director of the Center for New Community, told a group of Utah community activists Friday that white supremacist groups are feeding off a rising "nativism and xenophobia" in their efforts toward "rolling back" the progress of the 1960s civil rights movement.

"They work productively . . . to try to put up barriers, to try to block change, to turn back time," Burghart said. "There are those who, for a variety of reasons, want to change immigration policy, who want to change the essence of the make-up of the United States."

However, Alex Segura of the Utah Minuteman Project and Utahns for Immigration Reform and Enforcement, said neither of the two anti-illegal immigration groups promotes racism.

He said Burghart's statements are "trying to sweep us into a general pile."

"I think people are getting off the track here," Segura said. "We're looking at the law, that's all. There are many races that are affected by illegal immigration."

Minuteman Wally McCormick called Burghart's comments baseless name-calling.

"We will never assimilate ourselves into any supremacy group," McCormick said. "This is an America of different nationalities, and we're proud of that. . . . You've got to have controlled immigration, not immigration out of control."

Burghart said there are about 15 national anti-immigration groups, with 600,000 to 750,000 contributors, according to research by the Center for New Community. Those groups, he said, have a combined annual budget of $15 million.

Archie Archuleta, chairman of the Utah Coalition of La Raza, said the meeting at Centro de La Familia brought together several groups concerned about the human aspect of immigration. Archuleta and others are planning a summit in August to address issues such as the Utah Legislature's joint Education Interim Committee's recent vote to support repealing a law that allows some undocumented students to pay in-state tuition.

"It also brought forth the idea that there's more to this anti-immigration thing than just the idea of revamping the immigration code," Archuleta said. "There are a lot of people who are worried about immigration who would like to see it fixed, and something done, and they are not racist.

"(Burghart) was right in pointing out that the groups who financed these issues . . . have a bad reputation about racism."

Burghart said ideas that were once on the fringe have been mainstreamed, using as evidence a quote by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke: "Every new immigrant adds to our crime problems, our welfare rolls and unemployment of American citizens . . ."