Parsing Immigration Policy

Center for Immigration Studies
  • 4.3 (58)
  • Politics
  • Updated Weekly

A weekly discussion of immigration policy matters, both immediate and long-term, with researchers from the Center for Immigration Studies and guests.The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization. Since our founding in 1985 by Otis Graham Jr., we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States. Listen to all episodes of Parsing Immigration Policy at Ricochet.com.

  1. 1d ago

    40 Years After IRCA, What Did We Learn?

    Forty years ago this month, Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA), a law intended as a grand bargain: legalizing millions of illegal aliens while establishing workplace enforcement to end the economic magnet that encouraged illegal immigration. Spoiler alert: the amnesty happened, the enforcement did not. On this 40th anniversary, Parsing Immigration Policy features a discussion with two former INS officials who dealt firsthand with the law and its aftermath. CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian moderates the discussion with Dan Cadman, a former INS deputy director of investigations and CIS fellow, and Dan Vara, a former INS/ICE attorney and CIS board member. Among the lessons discussed:IRCA’s legalization was not matched by the resources needed for workplace enforcement. Cadman notes that INS did not add investigative officers or resources after the law was passed, making widespread employer education, audits, and worksite enforcement unrealistic.The rush to process millions of legalization applications led to changes in adjudication procedures, including eliminating one-on-one interviews and conducting them remotely, which resulted in massive fraud.Vara describes seeing document fraud almost immediately, as applicants focused on how to obtain the documents they needed rather than whether they qualified.Vara emphasizes that “immigration is politics and politics is immigration,” while the speakers argue that those who pushed the amnesty — including Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch, plus the National Council of La Raza (now known as UnidosUS) — ultimately sought to get everyone into the pipeline and then undo the grand bargain.The speakers warn that policymakers should never put benefits first while leaving vague or impossible enforcement goals to be accomplished later. Cadman summarizes the central lesson: “Amnesty is a mistake.”In his closing comments, Krikorian draws attention to a new DHS watchdog report on visa overstays during the Biden administration. The report demonstrates that the Biden/Mayorkas DHS not only admitted millions of inadmissible aliens at the border, but also effectively ignored this other means of illegal immigration, failing to investigate even those visa overstays deemed a threat to public safety. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests Dan Cadman is a Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies. Dan Vara is a Board Member of the Center for Immigration Studies. Links Report: Biden Administration Took Little Action on Alien Overstays, Including Those Deemed Threats to National Security Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  2. Oct 1

    ‘Worst of the Worst’ or Mass Deportation?

    “This is probably the most secure border we’ve had in the United States since the 19th century.” That’s the verdict of Andrew “Art” Arthur, a Center for Immigration Studies scholar and one of two guests on this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy. But with the border secure, what progress is the Trump DHS making in removing the illegal aliens already here, millions of them intentionally let in under the Biden administration? Is ICE engaging in the “mass deportation” that candidate Trump had promised, or are agents focused mainly on arresting the “worst of the worst”, as President Trump has repeatedly said. That’s the question Arthur and fellow panelist Matt O’Brien, deputy executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), address in this episode, which is a session from a recent invitation-only CIS event. Both speakers are veterans of immigration policymaking and enforcement, including as immigration judges. Arthur points out that in the mid-1980s, the average immigration agent arrested 500 aliens per year. “If ICE were going at that level right now,” Arthur said, “we would have 3 million interior arrests – we’re not anywhere close to that.” Arthur said the explanation is today’s relative lack of worksite immigration enforcement: “If we can’t agree on worksite enforcement, you’re never actually going to have a mass deportation program.” O’Brien rejected the framing of “mass deportation”, noting that “We’re not engaging in ‘mass deportation’, we’re simply enforcing the provisions of the INA (the Immigration and Nationality Act).” He continued, “We need to move off of this false dichotomy between ‘worst of the worst’ and ‘mass deportation’ . . . and then allow ICE to get on with its duties, just like we do every other law enforcement agency in the United States.” In explaining why ICE hasn’t been more forthcoming in releasing deportation statistics, Arthur suggested, “I think a lot of this stems from the time Kristi Noem was [DHS] secretary, because they were making all kinds of statements, and any statistic that they put out today is probably going to undermine that.” O’Brien had a different take, explaining that “everyone from the postal inspector to the Bureau of Land Management” have been tasked with making immigration arrests, and the data has not been collected centrally: “I don’t think anyone put any thought prior to making these arrests into any kind of centralized data capture.” In his closing remarks, host Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center and host of Parsing Immigration Policy, drew attention to a recent analysis by Arthur of a report by the House Judiciary Committee on the sanctuary policies of Arlington County, Va., across the Potomac from the nation’s capital. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests Andrew Arthur is the Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies. Matt O’Brien is Deputy Executive Director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Links Matt O’Brien’s author page House Judiciary Takes Aim at Criminal-Alien-Friendly Policies Across the Potomac Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage: Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  3. Sep 24

    How Many Illegal Aliens Are There?

    The number of illegal aliens in the United States dropped by about 15 percent, to 13.5 million, during the first year and half of the Trump administration, according to a study by the Center for Immigration Studies. But why do we trust that number? Could it be 30 million? Why not 100 million? In this episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, host Mark Krikorian interviews two Center experts, Research Director Steven Camarota and Resident Scholar Jason Richwine, who explain what the Center’s population estimates are, how they are arrived at, their limitations, and why much higher estimates cannot be correct. The two guests also discuss a second recent report finding a dramatic increase in the number of immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries in the years since 9/11, many of which are either hostile to the U.S. or struggle with powerful terrorist movements. In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian cites a recent Washington Post article discussing the escalation of third-country deportations to explain why this policy is needed for the integrity of the U.S. immigration system in the long run. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests Steven Camarota is the Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies. Jason Richwine is a Resident Scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies. Links Census Bureau Survey Shows Total Foreign-Born Down 2.9 Million Illegal Immigrant Population Was About 13.5 Million in July 2026 Since 9/11, the Number of Immigrants from the Muslim World Has Grown by 1.8 Million How Trump turned a refugee bureau into a $410 million deportation operation Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  4. Sep 17

    Rebroadcast: Immigration Shifts Political Power

    The Trump administration’s proposed changes to the residence criteria for the 2030 Census have brought new attention to a question examined by the Center for Immigration Studies two years ago: How does immigration affect political representation even when immigrants do not vote? In response, the Center is rebroadcasting Parsing Immigration Policy Episode 178, “Immigration Shifts Political Power,” originally released in October 2024. The episode features Steven Camarota, Director of Research, discussing two studies released by the Center examining how immigration affects the distribution of political power. Under the current system, House seats and Electoral College votes are apportioned among the states based on total population. The Census Bureau’s proposed residence criteria for the 2030 Census would exclude illegal immigrants and long-term temporary visitors from the Census count, which is used to apportion seats in the House of Representatives. The two CIS studies examined: House seats and Electoral College votes: “Tilting the Balance” estimated that immigration affected the distribution of 17 House seats in the 2020 Census, with a net gain of 14 seats for Democratic-leaning states.Representation within congressional districts: “How Non-Citizens Impact Political Representation and the Partisan Makeup of the U.S. House” examined how differences in non-citizen populations affect the distribution of representation among districts.“Because of the way reapportionment and redistricting work, immigration, including illegal immigration, redistributes political power in Washington,” said Camarota, the lead author of both studies. “This redistribution is directly proportional to the scale of legal and illegal immigration and exists independent of whether or how immigrants themselves vote.” Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guest Steven Camarota is the Director of Research at the Center for Immigration Studies. Links Proposed Residence Criteria and Proposed Regulations for Demographic Questions Estimating the impact of legal and illegal immigration on apportionment and political influence in the U.S. House and Electoral College How Non-Citizens Impact Political Representation and the Partisan Makeup of the U.S. House of Representatives How Many Non-Citizens Would Have to Vote to Affect the 2024 Presidential Election? Tilting the Balance Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage: Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  5. Sep 10

    Panel: 9/11 and Immigration - Twenty-Five Years of Lessons and Unfinished Business

    Twenty-five years after 9/11, is the United States better prepared to prevent another terrorist attack? This week's podcast is an edited rebroadcast of the Center's panel held to examine that question, discussing the role immigration and border security played in the attacks, the major policy changes that followed, and the national-security challenges that remain. Former U.S. Senator and Attorney General Jeff Sessions introduced the panel and offered brief remarks. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest at the time of the attacks, Sessions was deeply involved in congressional oversight of immigration and national security in the years following 9/11. The panel at examined how the attacks reshaped U.S. immigration policy, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, changes to visa screening and information sharing, and increased attention to border security. The panel also revisited the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission: What was implemented? What was left undone? In addition, a European security expert discussed how 9/11 affected policy there as well. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guests General Jeff Sessions, Former U.S. Senator and Attorney General. Andrew R. Arthur, CIS Fellow in Law and Policy, who served as immigration oversight counsel to House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner beginning in July 2001 and worked on major post-9/11 immigration and national-security legislation. George Fishman, CIS Senior Legal Fellow, who served for two decades as Republican Chief Counsel of the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee and worked on major post-9/11 immigration and national-security legislation. Jessica M. Vaughan, CIS Director of Policy Studies, who was at CIS on 9/11 and specializes in immigration screening, visa programs, immigration enforcement, and public safety. Viktor Marsai, CIS Fellow, Director, Migration Research Institute in Budapest, and professor of security studies at Ludovika University of Public Service. Links Press Release and Video Streams: YouTube, Facebook, X C-Span Coverage Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage: Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  6. Sep 3

    What Europe’s Migration Crisis Looks Like from Italy

    Italy is increasingly pushing back against Europe’s approach to illegal immigration, including a growing dispute with Germany over who should take responsibility for migrants rescued in the Mediterranean. On this week’s episode of the Center for Immigration Studies’ Parsing Immigration Policy podcast, Italian journalist Francesca Ronchin offers an Italian perspective on the migration pressures facing Europe and the growing frustration with uncontrolled flows. Ronchin, a journalist with RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana, Italy’s national public broadcaster, focuses on immigration in Europe. She explains the Italian government view that when German NGOs rescue migrants in the Mediterranean, Germany should take responsibility for them, rather than bringing them to Italy and subsequently asking Italy to take them back. Among the topics discussed:Italy and Germany: The dispute over Mediterranean rescues, asylum responsibility, and whether NGO rescue operations create an incentive for additional migration.Ceuta and weaponized migration: The large-scale arrival in Spain’s North African exclave of Ceuta at the end of July, including the role of social media and traffickers and the view that Morocco used migration as a political tool.Immigration and Italy’s demographics: Whether immigration can solve Italy’s exceptionally low birth rate and what large-scale immigration means for wages, employment, taxes, and the welfare state.Integration and assimilation: The challenges of absorbing large numbers of newcomers and the difficulty of discussing assimilation openly in Italy.The migration route from Africa to Europe: Ronchin’s documentary, La Grande Bugia – Eritrea Andata e Ritorno (The Great Lie – Eritrea There and Back), which examines migration from northeastern Africa and questions surrounding claims of Eritrean nationality and asylum. An English-language version is forthcoming.Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guest Francesca Ronchin is a journalist with RAI-Radiotelevisione Italiana. Links Francesca Ronchin's X Account“ La Grande Bugia – Eritrea Andata e Ritorno” (“The Great Lie – Eritrea There and Back”) Francesca Ronchin's author page at LaVerita Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage: Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  7. Aug 27

    Does Immigration Drive Up Housing Costs?

    The connection between immigration and housing costs is the subject of this week’s episode of the Center for Immigration Studies’ Parsing Immigration Policy podcast. Jason Richwine, a resident scholar at the Center, discusses his forthcoming study, scheduled for publication this fall in the peer-reviewed journal Cityscape. The large majority of academic studies find a positive relationship between immigration and housing prices, with relatively little debate over the basic nexus. Richwine’s research updates the evidence using 2014 and 2023 data and examines the effects of increased immigration on rents across nearly 1,700 public-use microdata areas (PUMAs). Among the findings:A 1 percentage-point increase in the foreign-born share is associated with approximately a 1.5 percent increase in rents paid by natives, when direct and spillover effects are included.Immigration in one area also raises rents in surrounding areas, creating a ripple effect beyond the community experiencing the initial increase.Housing construction cannot necessarily respond quickly enough to accommodate large, sudden increases in population, while restrictions on new construction and opposition to higher-density housing further constrain supply.Richwine also discusses research linking higher housing costs to lower fertility and increases in the sheltered homeless population, arguing that the difficulty of rapidly expanding housing supply is another reason to favor "lower and slower" immigration. In the episode’s commentary, CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian discusses a NYT article reporting a private meeting between Jared Kushner and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries about potential areas of immigration policy agreement. Krikorian considers what the administration can do to reassure immigration restriction supporters that it will not compromise on its agenda, including more aggressive workplace enforcement and further measures to tighten legal immigration. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guest Jason Richwine is a Resident Scholar at the Center for Immigration Studies Links Abstract: “Immigration and Rent: PUMA-Based Spatial Analysis” Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

  8. Aug 20

    J-1 Visa Program: A Cheap Labor Program

    Americans visiting beaches, neighborhood pools, summer camps, and resorts this summer are likely to encounter foreign workers filling jobs as lifeguards, ice-cream scoopers, housekeepers, counselors, and restaurant workers. Many may not realize that these workers are in the United States on J-1 exchange visas—a program the State Department promotes as an instrument of cultural exchange and public diplomacy. A new episode of the Center for Immigration Studies podcast Parsing Immigration Policy examines the findings of the recently published CIS report, Exchange Visa Programs Operate Mainly For Cheap Labor, Not Cultural Exchange, with Jessica Vaughan, the Center's director of policy studies. The report finds that the J-1 program has evolved into a major temporary foreign-worker program:About 75 percent of the 275,000 J-1 visas issued in 2025 went to workers, while only about 25 percent went to more traditional exchange programs.Summer Work Travel alone accounted for 105,000 visas, making it the largest J-1 category. Another 32,000 went to foreign camp counselors.The State Department has approved more than 1,500 third-party organizations to administer J-1 programs, effectively outsourcing much of the program's oversight to organizations that can benefit financially from placing foreign workers with U.S. employers.J-1 summer exchange workers are supposed to head home soon, but thousands will ignore the rules and overstay, joining the illegal population. The J-1 category has one of the highest overstay rates among U.S. entry categories, according to DHS overstay data.The episode also examines potential reforms, including stronger penalties for sponsors, greater scrutiny of countries with high overstay rates, the termination of the subcategories that have no meaningful public diplomacy value, and transferring work-based J-1 programs to the Department of Labor for appropriate labor-market oversight. Host Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies. Guest Jessica Vaughan is the Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies Links Exchange Visa Programs Operate Mainly For Cheap Labor, Not Cultural Exchange J-1 Visas: Cheap Labor as Cultural Exchange Intro Montage Voices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.Candidate Trump in 2015 campaign speech.Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".

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About

A weekly discussion of immigration policy matters, both immediate and long-term, with researchers from the Center for Immigration Studies and guests.The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit, research organization. Since our founding in 1985 by Otis Graham Jr., we have pursued a single mission – providing immigration policymakers, the academic community, news media, and concerned citizens with reliable information about the social, economic, environmental, security, and fiscal consequences of legal and illegal immigration into the United States. Listen to all episodes of Parsing Immigration Policy at Ricochet.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Center for Immigration Studies
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    277
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Center for Immigration Studies
  • Show Website
    Parsing Immigration Policy

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