The entire media and political establishment believes mass immigration is the greatest thing about America.
Even questioning that notion makes one a racist.
The few organizations who dare to criticize it and provide research to show its negative effects are a brave group that regularly deal with hysteric outrage from media elites.
Thankfully, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and NumbersUSA continue the fight in spite of all the flak they receive.
It should come as no surprise then that these groups’ opposition to giving permanent legal status to so-called Dreamers, illegal aliens who came to the United States as minors, should drag out the usual smears.
Mario Lopez — head of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, a group that purports to promote conservative ideas to the Latino community — wrote in The Daily Caller opinion section about how just downright evil FAIR and CIS are for opposing amnesty for Dreamers.
Instead of rebutting these groups’ research and arguments, Lopez resorts to calling them racist and relying on asinine claims of guilt by association.
The main scary thing about these groups is their association with Jason Richwine, a former Heritage Foundation scholar who contributes to CIS research. Richwine is controversial due to his Harvard Ph.D dissertation that discussed the average IQs of immigrant groups and for contributing two articles in 2010 to a website run by white nationalist Richard Spencer — before Spencer was an open white nationalist.
Because of these associations, Richwine is apparently a crank and that discredits all of CIS’ work. Whoever thought research that earns one a doctorate from Harvard University would taint everything you’re associated with?
The second big claim is that CIS allegedly promotes the writings of alt-right writers like Kevin MacDonald. However, this alleged frequent occurrence appears to be one whopping occasion when the group shared an article of MacDonald’s in an e-mail round up of articles and commentary, which has literally included thousands of articles and op-eds over the years.
The listserv shares articles from across the political spectrum and has been praised by reporters at The Washington Post and staffers at pro-immigration groups like the Migration Policy Institute.
It’s not clear how this one instance discredits CIS’ work.
Lopez calls FAIR president Dan Stein a “eugenicist” based on a creative reading of quotes from a 20-year-old article written by a young Tucker Carlson. It may surprise Lopez that Stein is so odious he somehow appeared on Carlson’s Fox News show multiple in 2017.
The Hispanic Leadership Fund president makes frequent mention of Carlson’s 1997 article on the immigration reduction movement, but doesn’t note The Daily Caller co-founder frequently relying on CIS research for his show, having CIS’ Mark Krikorian and FAIR’s Stein appear on it to share their views and the fact he has recently criticized mass immigration on numerous occasions.
One wonders if Lopez would smear Carlson, who is cited in the op-ed as a conservative authority, a “racist” for those facts.
The rest of Lopez’s argument involves ties between immigration groups and environmentalists and pro-abortionists. That may make them less conservative in the eyes of some, but it doesn’t discredit their work.
Considering that Mark Krikorian — a frequent contributor to National Review and a man who holds very conservative views — is arguably the face of the mainstream immigration reduction movement, it’s silly to claim a few associations means these folks are really a bunch of tree-hugging baby killers.
As mentioned previously, Lopez doesn’t refute the work CIS, FAIR and others do besides saying it’s “sloppy pseudo-research” and “economically illiterate” — sans citations, of course. It is funny for a man whose group’s sole purpose is to feed the delusion that most Hispanic voters share the exact same views as libertarian billionaires would say such dismissive things about people who live in the real world.
Ultimately, Lopez tells conservatives they should support amnesty because not doing so puts you in league with racists. This is the exact same garbage Americans rejected when they voted for Trump. Average Americans are tired of these leftist attacks that are endlessly propounded by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (which appears to be Lopez’s main source for his article).
People don’t like illegal immigration because they want to have an economy that benefits the interests of Americans first and upholds the rule of law. But Lopez wants us to believe the “real” conservative position is rewarding law-breakers in order to screw over American workers.
Lopez’s group is dedicated to the ridiculous notion that Latinos will start voting Republican because of corporate tax cuts and support of open borders. There is literally zero evidence for this proposition.
A better strategy for winning over Hispanic voters would be to show how GOP policies make sure their jobs are protected and their communities are safe. The further encouragement of low-skill, cheap labor to take the jobs of Hispanic citizens will do nothing to help that cause.
Thankfully, there is credible research provided by the Center for Immigration Studies Lopez can read to show how mass immigration negatively affects minority and low-income communities.
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