Save Our State

Save Our State (SOS) is an activist organization opposed to illegal immigration in Southern California. The group also has a chapter in Northern California. The organization's methodology revolves around the 'transference of pain' and it has been described as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

As of November 2009, the Saveourstate.org has become inactive and bears the message, "Saveourstate.org forums and website have been closed indefinitely." The Northern California Chapter has since taken over direction of the organization.

The group takes its name from California's 1994 Proposition 187, known as the "Save Our State" initiative. The proposition, which would have denied taxpayer-funded health care and education to illegal immigrant residents of California, was approved by a majority of voters in 1994 but was immediately challenged in court and was eventually struck down by a US district court four years later.

The group was incorporated in July 2004 by Ventura resident Joseph Turner, who was unsatisfied with the existing immigration-reform groups whose letter-writing campaigns he deemed ineffectual. In an interview, Turner stated, "Our belief is that if that worked or had any sort of positive influence, we wouldn’t be in the situation we’re in." In contrast, SOS's tactics are statedly "aggressive", and "in-your-face". Their language reflects this, intentionally eschewing what they perceive to be the political correctness that characterized the language of the 1990s. In the opinion of Turner and many of his supporters, political correctness and multiculturalism are both factors that contribute to the continued entry of illegal aliens into the United States.

Members of Save Our State frequently travel outside of their hometowns to protest day labor sites in other communities, sometimes eliciting criticism from locals for doing so. They are known to carry signs, pepper spray and other weapons, and video cameras with which to post footage from the day's events to video-sharing services.

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