The dwindling Ku Klux Klan may seem like a relic of crueler times, but the number of hate groups operating in the United States has actually jumped a staggering 48 percent since 2000. Many of these groups have sprouted along the border in Arizona, California and Texas, where their ringleaders have often hijacked the immigration debate. - Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala.
SOURCE: Southern Poverty Law Center; www.splcenter.org | GRAPHIC: Laura Stanton | MAPS: Mary Kate Cannistra, The Washington Post - March 9, 2008