147 episodes

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.

Parsing Immigration Policy Center for Immigration Studies

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    • 4.3 • 32 Ratings

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.

    Straight Talk on Biden’s Parole Flights

    Straight Talk on Biden’s Parole Flights

    Since September 2023, the Center for Immigration Studies has been on the forefront of reporting on the Biden administration direct-flight and parole program that has authorized the arrival of more than 320,000 inadmissible aliens through the CBP One app. The program allows migrants to take commercial passenger flights from foreign countries straight to their American cities of choice, without having to go to the southern land border. The program has largely operated under the radar until the Center filed a FOIA request, followed by litigation. The lawsuits continue – the Center is presently suing to have the administration release the names of the foreign airports and the receiving airports in the U.S.

    Todd Bensman, the Center’s national security fellow and author of the reporting on the flights, joins host Mark Krikorian on this episode of Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss misconceptions surrounding the program, clarifying that the government authorizes the inadmissible aliens to enter the country, but does not buy the tickets, and that while it is secretive, in that the administration has tried to minimize public and congressional attention to it, it is not a secret program.

    Last week some U.S. media outlets challenged characterizations of the CIS report by former President Trump and X owner Elon Musk along with various social media influencers – but not the factual bases of CIS reporting.

    Bensman also discusses the Center making the news again when 23 lawmakers from the House of Representatives cited the CIS reporting in a letter demanding an end to the secretive Biden government program as well as the names of the airports.

    U.S. cities are staggering under the burden of accommodating hundreds of thousands of needy immigrants. However, because of the stealth nature of this parole program, local officials are likely unaware that instead of attributing their challenges solely to Texas Governor Abbott, they should be directing their concerns to the White House. The Center remains steadfast in its commitment to ensure transparency and accountability and to provide state and local communities with information on this legally dubious parole program.

    In his closing commentary, Krikorian highlights a further disturbing aspect of this direct-flight parole program. Aliens wanting to take advantage of it must first secure a sponsor in the United States. As Nayla Rush, a senior researcher at the Center, explains in her timely blog, Parolees Paroling In More Parolees, those sponsors need not be U.S. citizens or aliens with green cards – earlier parolees, or recipients of Temporary Protected Status, or even foreign students are permitted to serve as sponsors. In other words, the Biden administration’s parole programs enable aliens allowed in temporarily and without formal legal status to effectively decide who receives the privilege of residing and working in the United States.

    Host

    Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Guest

    Todd Bensman is a National Security Fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Related

    Government Admission: Biden Parole Flights Create Security ‘Vulnerabilities’ at US Airports

    Fact Checking the Fact Check: CIS Reporting Stands

    Lawmakers Cite CIS in Demanding End to Secretive Immigration Flights

    a...

    • 32 min
    Combatting Illegal Immigration on the State and Local Level

    Combatting Illegal Immigration on the State and Local Level

    On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies, joins us to discuss what states and other local jurisdictions can do to combat illegal immigration in wake of the Biden administration’s refusal to enforce immigration laws. Vaughan joins us from the Western States Sheriffs’ Association convention in Reno, Nev.

    Vaughan provides suggestions to states and localities on policies and laws that can be implemented to remove illegal aliens from their jurisdictions and make their communities less attractive to illegal aliens. It’s important for these jurisdictions to take action now to push back on what is happening on the federal level, but it’s also important if we get a new administration that takes immigration enforcement seriously. As Vaughan explains, the federal government can’t properly enforce the immigration law without cooperation from state and local governments.

    Certain states have passed state laws that combat illegal immigration. In Texas, the state legislature passed a law that would make illegal immigration to their state a crime, but the law has temporarily been put on hold by the Supreme Court. Vaughan urges states to go after the criminal infrastructure of illegal immigration, like what Florida did by passing tough anti-smuggling legislation.

    At the end of the episode, Vaughan shares what she has heard firsthand from sheriffs on how illegal immigration is impacting their communities. They are united in their concerns over public safety and upset that Biden has yet to meet with a sheriff. And this is an issue that is unlikely to improve anytime soon without federal action – Sheriff Mark Dannels of Cochise County, Ariz., which is a border county, says that border-related crime has risen from 5 percent of all crimes in his county to a whopping 44 percent in the last three years.

    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

    Related

    Map: Sanctuary Cities, Counties, and States

    How States Can Fight Human Trafficking

    Florida Grand Jury: Biden Putting Alien Children in Harm’s Way

    Recommendations for State and Local Action on Immigration

    U Visas for Illegal-Alien Crime Victims: Yet Another Amnesty Ploy

    Biden Border Policies Are Working Fine — For the Cartels

    NumbersUSA E-Verify Map

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    • 39 min
    Trump and Biden Head to Border Amid Speculation of ‘Bold’ Executive Action on Immigration

    Trump and Biden Head to Border Amid Speculation of ‘Bold’ Executive Action on Immigration

    President Biden and former President Trump are both scheduled to visit Texas border towns today, just as polling reveals widespread dissatisfaction with the president’s handling of the border and immigration. With the failure of the Senate border bill and growing concern over the record number of border crossers, news reports suggest President Biden may announce executive actions that would stem the border crisis his policies created.

    This week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy welcomes guest Andrew Arthur, the Center’s resident fellow in law and policy, who discusses one executive action that has been floated – barring aliens who enter illegally between ports of entry from being able to apply for asylum. Such a measure would replicate a previous regulation, the “Circumvention of Lawful Pathways” (CLAP) rule introduced in May 2023, that was designed not to lower border crossing numbers, but rather to “reduce wait times and crowds at U.S. ports of entry and allow for safe, orderly, and humane processing.” The rule faced legal challenges, notably in M.A. v. Mayorkas and East Bay Sanctuary Covenant v. Biden. A judge in the latter case, however, suggested that the administration may be talking tough to appease a public anxious for border action while not fighting vigorously to defend his own asylum rule.

    Arthur ponders whether such a ‘sue-and-settle’ scheme is now being hatched by the administration and advocacy groups. Could the president be floating tougher border rules in a political effort to appeal to voters, knowing that left-leaning advocacy groups will sue, allowing his administration to engage in settlement negotiations killing the rule if it is too unpopular with his base?

    Mark Krikorian, host of the podcast and executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, quotes circuit Judge Lawrence Van Dyke, who wrote in his East Bay Sanctuary Covenant dissent, “it looks like the administration and its frenemies on the other side of this case are colluding to avoid playing their politically fraught game during an election year.”

    In his closing commentary, Krikorian draws attention to security vulnerabilities at the Southwest border. He highlights the massive increase in Chinese nationals crossing in the San Diego area, where in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024, 15 percent of all Border Patrol apprehensions were from China.

    Host

    Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Guest

    Andrew Arthur is the Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies

    Related

    Biden Reportedly Considering Executive Action on Border Crisis

    Somehow, Biden’s Immigration and Border Polling Gets Worse

    China is exploiting Biden’s lax border policies — imperiling US security

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    • 32 min
    Report: Can U.S. Farm Workers Be Replaced by Machines?

    Report: Can U.S. Farm Workers Be Replaced by Machines?

    A Center for Immigration Studies report and companion podcast episode, “Can U.S. Farm Workers be Replaced by Machines? Mechanizing Fruit and Vegetable Production,” provide historical context as well as analysis of current challenges and prospects for farm labor and mechanization. Both the report and the discussion explain the options available to replace U.S. farm workers - machines, H-2A guestworkers, and imports.

    The report outlines how rising labor costs have historically driven the adoption of mechanization in agriculture. It traces the evolution of farm mechanization, from the end of the Bracero program in the 1960s to the present day, highlighting pivotal moments such as the enactment of the Immigration and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). IRCA supporters promised that legalized farm workers would demand higher wages, and that farm employers would have to raise wages and improve working conditions to retain legalized workers or hire H-2A guestworkers. But this did not happen, partly due to massive fraud.

    Philip Martin, professor emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California at Davis and author of the report, discusses how once legalized the workers left the fields for other employment and were replaced by new illegal workers. Since the passing of IRCA, which legalized more than one million illegal farm workers, the debate over the pay and work conditions of those in the fields and the role of mechanization has persisted.

    Martin emphasizes the pivotal role of government policies in impacting the growth of mechanization through labor-saving research, the cost of farm workers, and imports. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act (FWMA), approved by the U.S. House in March 2021 and re-introduced in July 2023, is the most recent legislation debated and repeats the IRCA bargain – legalization of illegal farmworkers for easier access to H-2A guestworkers.

    There is a race between labor-saving machines and migrant H-2A workers playing out amidst rising imports. Higher labor costs accelerate investments in machines to replace workers and spur government and private efforts to develop new farming systems, biological and engineering breakthroughs, and supply chain adjustments to accelerate labor-saving mechanization.Martin stresses, “Research, migration, and trade policies will help to determine whether workers or machines pick U.S. apples and oranges in 2030.”

    In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director and podcast host, highlights President Biden’s false claim that he does not have the authority to control the border and action from Congress is required. Political vulnerability is now forcing him to control the massive numbers entering the country.

    Host

    Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Guest

    Philip Martin is Professor Emeritus of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of California at Davis.

    Related

    Can U.S. Farm Workers Be Replaced By Machines?

    Bracero 2.0: Mexican Workers in North American Agriculture

    Biden’s New Border Plan Shows ‘I Can’t Do Anything’ Was Always A Lie

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    • 37 min
    The Democrats’ Immigration Evolution

    The Democrats’ Immigration Evolution

    On this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, we are joined by Ruy Teixeira, co-author with John Judis of last fall’s book, Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes. Teixeira, currently a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, worked from 2003 to 2022 as a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning public policy research and advocacy organization.

    Teixeira explains that Democrats were not always proponents of the open-border agenda. The Democratic party used to see illegal immigration as a threat to low-wage workers and unions. In fact, in the 1980s, organized labor was the main group pushing for more hawkish immigration policies.

    Teixeira stresses the importance of including the people at the center of the American electorate in policy debates, stating that the Democratic leadership is way off where the public is not. Many issues have become “culturalized” and reflect the agenda of what he calls a “shadow party” that includes activist groups, donors, academics, et al. who view issues, especially immigration, through a good-versus-evil lens, which does not foster productive debate or compromise.

    Today, he said, Democrats refuse to even acknowledge a problem at our southern border and have generally alienated the working class, which once made up a significant part of their base. Additionally, they often categorize their opponents as evil rather than merely mistaken. Teixeira sums up the view of the Democratic “shadow party” on immigration as “more is better and less is racist.”

    In his closing commentary, Mark Krikorian shares what he saw on a recent trip to the Del Rio and Eagle Pass areas of Texas, which has been “Ground Zero” for the border crisis. However, almost overnight the illegal immigration flow has virtually stopped in this area, thanks to a Mexican army crackdown on illegal migrants that followed December visits to Mexico by President Biden and other senior officials.

    Host

    Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Guest

    Ruy Teixeira is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

    Related

    Ruy Teixeira AEI profile

    Could Immigration Hand the 2024 Election to Trump?

    Where Have All the Democrats Gone?: The Soul of the Party in the Age of Extremes

    How Biden Could Act on the Border and Help Himself in November

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    • 42 min
    Senate Border Bill Update

    Senate Border Bill Update

    The Senate bill that would provide billions of dollars’ worth of funding to Ukraine in exchange for increased border security measures is unlikely to pass into law, but certain provisions from the bill may make their way into future border legislation. Andrew Arthur, the Center for Immigration Studies’ Resident Fellow in Law and Policy and former counsel for the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, joins Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss the border bill with our host and executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, Mark Krikorian.

    Arthur provides background on the bill and explains what changes would be implemented if it became law, including a 5,000 per-day cap on illegal entries, after which the border would be briefly closed to other migrants. In essence, Democratic efforts to promote this bill are little more than an attempt to limit the damage to President Biden’s political prospects resulting from increasing focus on the chaos at the border in an election year. The bill also includes provisions that have nothing to do with border security – including an increase in family- and employment-based green cards and automatic work permits for relatives of certain temporary workers.

    Regardless, Arthur explains, the president does not need legislative action to enforce the border, and the administration’s support of this bill is an admission of the failures of its current policies. The proposed cap of 5,000 illegal entries per day shows that Biden can close the border to illegal aliens at any time – he just doesn’t want to.

    Host

    Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Guest

    Andrew Arthur is the Resident Fellow in Law and Policy at the Center for Immigration Studies.

    Related

    The Good — and a Lot of Bad — in the Senate Border ‘Deal

    ’Latest Immigration Bill Spends $1.29 billion on Ineffective ATD Program

    The Availability of Work Authorization Is a Known ‘Pull Factor’ for Illegal Immigration and the Submission of Fraudulent Asylum Claims

    The Border Bill is Terrible

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    Intro Montage

    Voices in the opening montage:Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.Sen....

    • 37 min

Customer Reviews

4.3 out of 5
32 Ratings

32 Ratings

realbbbb ,

Enjoyable although some episodes I skip

I generally enjoy the podcast even though I'm usually up to date on most of the topics featured on it. There are definitely some topics that I'm not interested in and end up skipping (esp some of the panel discussions they replay). I also would suggest some type of listener Q&A segment every so often. Otherwise, Mark does a great job.

carboncow ,

Very much has an agenda

Another white nationalist group masquerading as a think tank. You’ll get numbers and information here don’t be fooled this group has an agenda do your research and start with Wikipedia to find out when the key players are in their organization.

retarmy1995 ,

Very informative

I find the discussions on various aspects on immegration to be very informative and well thoughtout. Highly recommend this podcast to anyone who wants very accurate facts and to become better informed on this important subject.

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