Restrictionists
Anti-Immigration NumbersUSA Distorts Statistics for Dramatic Effect
In yet another attempt to derail a rational debate on U.S. immigration policy, the anti-immigration group NumbersUSA has claimed recently that the federal government is bringing more than 1.6 million "new foreign workers" into the United States each year even as the unemployment rate continues to rise. This dubious figure is also being advanced by the Center for Immigration Studies and has already been parroted in a number of media outlets. Yet the "estimate" is so full of holes as to be virtually meaningless. Read More
H-1B Restrictions Harm, Not Help Economy
Everyone agrees that we urgently need to fix the economy, but there are many different ideas about how to do it. In the latest Congressional debate over the stimulus bill, restricting immigration came up as a way to protect U.S. workers. While the final language of the bill is still in flux, what's troubling is the ease with which the Senate--by voice vote--passed a measure that would bar companies that receive stimulus funds from bringing in high skilled H-1B workers. While perhaps superficially appealing, measures that keep foreign talent out hurts the nation as a whole. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times considered the recent battle on the stimulus bill when he wrote: Read More
Communities Across the Nation Rethink Hard-Line Immigration Laws
Amidst a deep economic recession and a growing climate of fear and alienation within immigrant communities, many states, cities and counties that "plunged into the immigration debate are having second thoughts," reports USA Today. In states like Texas, Alabama and elsewhere, hard-line immigration legislation has been repealed or modified by lawmakers that have come to terms with the fact that the time and expense associated with implementing such policies has made their anti-immigrant position less popular among their constituents. In Iowa and Utah, legislators are proposing similar reversals. Accusations of racism and a surge in anti-immigrant hate crimes are also cited by USA Today as reasons for the about face. Read More
Prince William County Crusader Hangs Up Anti-Immigration Hat
Prince William County Board of Supervisors Chairman, Corey Stewart, has been at the forefront of an anti-immigrant crusade, setting the gold standard for local law enforcement "crackdowns" on the immigrant community in the last few years. Recent shifts in the political wind, however, have conveniently blown this Virginia Republican away from his undocumented immigration crusade toward more hot ticket topics, like the economy. Following the example of many GOP leaders who have recently softened their anti-immigration tone, Stewart, who built his ticket by cracking down on illegal immigrants as a social imperative, is now whistling another tune. According to the Washington Post, Stewart is changing his image in response to ‘plummeting home values, statewide Republican electoral defeats and widespread economic instability.' Read More
Steele Rewords, not Redefines GOP’s Immigration Stance
New RNC Chairman, Michael Steele declared in his acceptance speech that it's "time for something completely different." Yet when it comes to immigration, Steele is side-stepping pragmatic politics and choosing to stick with the same hard-line position that soured Latino and immigrant voters and contributed to the GOP's devastating losses this past election year. When pressed by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, who asked Steele if the GOP needs to change its position on immigration reform and reach out to Hispanics and let them know that they have a home in the Republican Party, Steele replied: Read More
Unemployed Americans Are Just Collateral Damage in War on Immigrants
It would seem that the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and the Heritage Foundation regard unemployed Americans as little more than collateral damage in their endless war against immigrants. Both groups have concocted a new and predictably anti-immigrant argument against passage of the economic stimulus bill now under consideration in the U.S. Senate, which is intended to save or create jobs for millions of unemployed and soon-to-be-unemployed Americans. According to CIS and the Heritage Foundation, the fatal flaw of this bill is that some of the jobs it creates, especially in the construction industry, might end up in the hands of undocumented immigrants. Apparently, this is reason enough to delay passage of the bill until it is modified to require unemployed Americans to jump through hoops in order to prove that they are entitled to work in the United States. Read More
Sheriff Joe Arpaio Stages Immigrant-Degradation March for the Cameras
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Phoenix, Arizona, seems to have an appetite for publicity so insatiable that it overrides both rationality and morality. His latest stunt—announced yesterday in an official press release, no less—comes today, when he will order "approximately 200 illegal aliens to be chained and marched" from the Durango Jail to a segregated area of his "Tent City" incarceration complex. Lest one be fooled into believing that this is a legitimate law-enforcement operation, Arpaio's press release includes details on the parade route and where "interested media" should park to cover this spectacle of degradation. According to Arpaio, marching chained immigrants from prison cells to tents surrounded by electric fencing will save money because it's cheaper to house inmates in tents than in a traditional jail. However, Maricopa County Supervisor Mary Rose Wilcox notes that Arpaio "doesn't outline how he'll save costs." Acting County Manager Sandi Wilson says that if Arpaio is "coming up with budget savings, he ought to offer it up. At this point, he hasn't. And this doesn't make any sense to me." Read More
New SPLC Report: Three leading anti-immigration groups share extremist roots
Today the Southern Poverty Law Center is releasing a new report, The Nativist Lobby: Three Faces of Intolerance examining the three Washington, D.C., organizations standing in the way of comprehensive immigration reform. The report shows that they are part of a network of groups created by a man who has been at the heart of the white nationalist movement for decades. The Nativist Lobby describes how the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA were founded and funded by John Tanton, a retired Michigan ophthalmologist who operates a racist publishing company and has written that to maintain American culture "a European-American majority" is required. The report reveals that Tanton, who still sits on FAIR's board of directors, founded the racist Social Contract Press and has corresponded with Holocaust deniers, white nationalist intellectuals and Klan lawyers for decades - correspondence documented by his own writings stored at a University of Michigan library. Read More
NY’s Gillibrand Softens on Immigration
"In a lot of these [immigration] issues, it's a case of learning more and expanding my view," said Kirsten Gillibrand-the new Senator of New York who has recently indicated that she's rethinking her hard-line approach to immigration and opting for more pragmatic solutions. Gillibrand's change of heart in part has to do with the 8,142,871 votes of New Americans who will be flocking to NY polls with immigration as one of the issues at the forefront of their minds in 2010. However, Gillibrand has also shown that having access to bonafide facts and information is critical to understanding the issue. And with an overwhelming number of myths and misinformation pervading the immigration debate, it's not always easy to differentiate fact from fiction. Read More
FAIR Blames Florida’s Budget Woes on Immigrants and Children
On January 29, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)—an anti-immigrant hate group headquartered in Washington, DC—issued a press release claiming that Florida's current budget crisis "would be lessened by ending illegal immigration costs." In support of this assertion, FAIR argues that "the current fiscal cost outlays for the illegal alien population in Florida now amount to more than $2.8 billion annually." However, FAIR's estimate is rendered meaningless by the statistical chicanery used to produce it. Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
