Chip Rogers, CEO Americans for Fair Treatment

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), long championed by prominent Democratic politicians as a bulwark against hate, is facing a credibility crisis – not from its opponents, but from within. At the heart of the turmoil is a charge that cuts deep: systemic racism.

In a stunning show of internal dissent, the SPLC’s own union accused the organization of abandoning its stated values. “SPLC Union is and will always be rooted in the legacy of anti-oppression and decolonization led by Black and Indigenous leaders,” the union recently wrote, declaring solidarity with the Palestinian people. This would be a principled stand if it weren’t paired with what they described as a catastrophic betrayal: the sudden layoffs of the SPLC’s entire immigration staff, expected this June.

While the organization publicly aligns itself with the politics of progressivism, its internal actions tell a different story. Firing an entire department of immigration advocates, many of whom likely worked directly with vulnerable communities, is not only tone-deaf. It is destructive. The contradiction is glaring. How can an institution claim to fight oppression while dismantling the very teams that combat it on the ground?

Even more troubling is the silence from Democratic leaders who have vocally supported the SPLC in the past. When an organization’s own employees call out systemic racism and hypocrisy, ignoring them isn’t just bad optics. It is a moral failure.

The SPLC should be a model of justice and integrity. Instead, it appears to be losing its soul to performative politics and internal dysfunction. It is time for its supporters to stop looking the other way and start asking hard questions.