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The Center for Immigration Studies
A. Title of agency or organization? Center for Immigration
Studies
B. Where is home base (city/state/country)? Washington, D.C.
C. Date founded? 1985
D. Names of key spokespersons/officers: Mark Krikorian,
Executive Director and Steve Camarota, Director of Research
E. What/who is key constituency or audience? Researchers,
journalists, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and policy
makers.
F. What are the agency’s main activities? It appears that
this group largely disseminates information that they have collected
about immigration. Most of the activity takes place on the website.
They also host panel discussions, release papers on immigration
issues and testify before congress. Mark Krikorian, Executive
Director testified before the senate Judiciary Committee on October
18, 2005.
G. Mission statement? (you may quote mission statement if
available; use quotation marks!) “It is the Center's mission to
expand the base of public knowledge and understanding of the need
for an immigration policy that gives first concern to the broad
national interest. The Center is animated by a pro-immigrant,
low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer
welcome for those admitted.”
H. What are the key im/migration issues of concern to this
agency? This agency is concerned about the number of legal and
illegal immigrants to the United States. They emphasized the cause
for concern by noting that the 35.2 million immigrants currently
living in the country are “two and a half times the 13.5 million
during the peak immigration wave of 1910.” This organization also
expresses dismay at the limited education and skill of the new
immigrants. The statistics offered however, notice that the amount
of immigrants and natives with a bachelor’s degree is roughly the
same. Welfare benefit consumption, lack of health insurance and
poverty rate are other issues of distress.
I. As best as you can determine, on what
evidence/sources/research/community does this agency base its
informational statements issued, press releases, reports, etc.? Pew
Hispanic Center and the Census Bureau (Current Population Survey)
are common resources.
J. Any publications? (what types, sample titles; if online,
give links) The website for the Center for Immigration Studies is
http://www.cis.org/. There are
links to recent news stories about immigration, e-mail service with
K. immigration news and developments, past papers produced,
and scheduled events. The organization has also authored and
co-authored several books.
http://www.cis.org/articles/index.html is the link to a list of
agency publications.
L. Give at least one citation about this agency from a
newspaper article (preferably an Arizona newspaper). Use a citation
index to research this e.g., Lexis Nexis, available from the
Migration Course Web Page made by the Fletcher Library:
http://library.west.asu.edu/subjects/SOC/soc331.html Briefly
state what the article is about, and provide a quote from the
article that includes the agency’s name and gives a good idea of
this agency’s perspective on im/migration. Note: not a quote from
agency’s own web site! On December 28, 2005, in the opinion section
of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Benjamin Powell, Director of the
Center on Entrepreneurial Innovaiton wrote under the headline,
Economic Myths of Immigration,
“During the past five years, more new immigrants came to the United
States than ever before in our
history – nearly 8 million, according to a new study by the Center
for Immigration Studies. This
influx has stirred much public debate. But before we adopt new
policies, politicians need to
distinguish clearly between the real problems caused by immigration
and non-problems based
on popular myths.”
The author went on to debunk with many of the concerns about
immigration that the Center for Immigration
Studies cites in their literature. Those topics include American job
loss, social service drain and unpaid
taxes. The author cited many benefits to immigration, such as low
cost food due to low wages paid to farm
workers.
Any other issues of interest about the agency?
The possible changes brought by groups of homosexual immigrants were
written about in a paper dated 1999. The author was concerned about
possible changes to marriage laws in the United States as a result
of such concentrated immigration. I did not notice any other groups
that elicit the worry as immigrants.
The Center for Immigration Studies believes that immigration is not
inevitable. The feel the existing laws should be enforced,
settlements should be limited and deportations should be employed.
The organization feels that there should be proof of legal status
before anyone is hired for a job. They also desire uniform standards
for driver’s licenses to serve as a nationally recognized form of
identification.
M. Is the agency noticeably pro or con immigration? (You may
need to determine this from “reading around” in its position papers,
press releases, news reports, etc) The agency is against
immigration. They say that they want to have a warmer welcome for
those admitted, however I could find no written documentation on how
that could be accomplished. Instead, they feel an effective
deterrent to illegal immigration is to, “…make it as difficult as
possible for illegal aliens to live a normal life here.”
N. Web site? Give URL
http://www.cis.org/
Caution: Do not simply copy the agency’s own words. Instead, give
synopsis based on your research.
If you have trouble locating information about your agency, contact
Dr K for help!
What to do with your report: 1) turn in hard copy Feb 1. 2) Post to
BB Discussion forum for this assignment (copy you’re A-N questions &
answers and paste to message, do not send as an attachment). 3) Save
your report to put on y
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