The Center for Immigration Studies: A Guide to CIS's Racist Agenda--And How to Expose It

8/16/2019 The Center for Immigration Studies: A Guide to CIS's Racist Agenda--And How to Expose It

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The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an extremist think tank

with roots in white nationalism that manufactures disingenuous

research to support bigoted, anti-immigrant policies.

What is CIS?

The Center for Immigration Studies is an extremist think tank with roots in white

nationalism. It promotes anti-immigrant policies, frequently using bigoted and

inflammatory rhetoric and disingenuous representations of facts to accomplish

its goals.

CIS positions itself as a non-partisan research institute, but it is actually an

integral component of the largest anti-immigrant alliance in the country, founded

by a white nationalist and supporter of eugenics.

What does CIS do?

CIS functions as the research and policy arm of the organized anti-immigrant

movement. The organization has a long record of misrepresenting numbers and

skewing statistics to fit its agenda.

! Several CIS reports have been exposed as making demonstrably false

claims, while others rely on unreleased data that cannot be verified.

CIS created the doctrine of “self-deportation,” which argues that laws should be

enacted to make life so difficult for migrants that they are forced to return to theircountries of origin.

! CIS has been so successful in promoting this doctrine that it has appeared

in the policy platforms of Senators and GOP presidential candidates.

Policies to encourage self-deportation have been found to be

unconstitutional and to violate individuals’ civil rights.

THE CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES A guide to CIS’s racist agenda—and how to expose it

From the Center for New Community

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/raul-a-reyes/romney-immigration-deportation_b_1288974.htmlhttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/supreme-court-overturns-key-parts-of-ahttp://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2015/06/30/blurring-borders-collusion-between-anti-immigrant-groups-and-immigration-enforcement-agents/http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/15/inside-the-center-for-immigration-studies-the-immigration-false-fact-think-tank.htmlhttps://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/john-tanthttp://newcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/21st-Century-Anti-Immigrant-Movement.pdfhttp://newcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/CIS_Profile_2012.pdfhttp://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2011/10/18/a-top-ten-tasteless-from-center-for-immigration-studies/


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CIS staff members often make racist and bigoted statements in their professional

capacities.

! Stephen Steinlight, a Senior Policy Analyst at CIS, publicly said that he

believed President Obama should be “hung, drawn, and quartered.”

Steinlight still works for CIS and is a frequent spokesperson for the

organization. (Additional quotes below).

! Beginning in January 2016, CIS began publishing reports and blogs

authored by discredited policy analyst Jason Richwine. In 2013, Richwine

resigned from The Heritage Foundation following revelations that his

Harvard dissertation included racist appeals to limit immigration based on

IQ.

Why is CIS important?

CIS advocates for extreme ideas, but it is not a fringe organization. CIS hassignificant influence over national immigration policy and its spokespersons

appear regularly in mainstream media, driving the public conversation farther

toward their anti-immigrant goals.

CIS trades in bigotry and extremism, and its opinions do not belong in

mainstream media or the halls of Congress.

http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2014/07/24/why-isnt-washington-think-tank-firing-staffer-who-said-obama-should-be-hung-drawn-and-quartered/http://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2014/07/21/video-stephen-steinlight-of-cis-calls-for-public-execution-of-barack-obama/


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Mark Krikorian, CIS Executive Director

! Mexico’s “weakness and backwardness has been deeply harmful to the

United States.

! “Gay marriage makes legalized polygamy inevitable. Incest, too.”

! “We have a border fence, better than we’ve ever had, albeit still not an

adequate one. Should there be more of it? Yes. Should more of it be a real,

double-layered, Israeli-style obstacle rather than just a low vehicle barrier,

as most of it is now? Certainly. Would that help reduce illegal

immigration? You bet.”

! On Jorge Ramos: “And this isn’t just some white-Hispanic ethnic hustler,

though Ramos is that — he’s practically the Walter Cronkite of Spanish-language media in the U.S…”

! “Now, I happen to believe that we shouldn’t be taking temporary workers,

because that reshapes our society along the lines of a Gulf sheikhdom…”

! Statement citing white nationalist blogger Steve Sailer: “But I think the

most important point is this, from Sailer's response: ‘Why don't we wait

five years and see what happens with immigration before passing some

massive immigration "reform" law based on suppositions about how

Fortunately, It Can't Happen Again?’”

!On twitter: “How many rapists & drug-dealers are the anti-deportationradicals protecting?” (Source for all quotes)

Stephen Steinlight, CIS Senior Policy Analyst

! On President Obama: “We all know, if there ever was a president that

deserved to be impeached, it’s this guy. Alright? I mean, I wouldn’t stop. I

would think being hung, drawn, and quartered is probably too good for

him.” (Source)

! "I don’t know what on earth we can do about Muslim immigration, I really

don’t. I mean, if I had my druthers, we would bring back something likethe McCarran act in the 50s, which barred communists and fascists on the

grounds that they believe in things that are subversive to the Constitution.

Well, Muslims believe in things that are subversive to the Constitution. [...]

It’s a great danger. I think Islam is not so much a religion as a hideous

totalitarian political creed looking for world supremacy." (Source)

Direct Quotes from Center for Immigration Studies Sta!

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/ciss-steinlight-ban-muslim-immigration-because-muslims-believe-thhttp://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2014/07/21/video-stephen-steinlight-of-cis-calls-for-public-execution-of-barack-obama/http://imagine2050.newcomm.or/


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! On Mexican immigrants: “You don’t know how long it will be here before

the political activists get engaged in that community and foment

something that will look like the civil rights movement for African

Americans, but I can promise you it will be a lot bloodier.” (Source)

Jessica Vaughan, CIS Director of Policy Studies

! “The administration already approves of the admission of gang members

as asylees and criminals in the DACA program,” Vaughan told The Daily

Caller, “so I don’t expect them to be troubled by the admission of terrorists

and garden variety fraudsters in our refugee program.” (Source)

! Vaughan argued that Temporary Protection Status for refugees has

contributed to “the burgeoning street gang problem in the United

States.” (Source)

! “SB 1070 and 287(g) laws are not precisely comparable... 287(g)agreements put officers through a four-week training and they get the

authority to arrest people for immigration violations. SB 1070 simply has

the officers ask people about their immigration status.” (Source)

© Center for New Community 2016newcomm.orgimagine2050.org

http://imagine2050.org/http://newcomm.org/http://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/print/USA/2010/0518/Arizona-immigration-law-has-echoes-of-controversial-fedehttp://www.cis.org/vaughan/dcdoublemurderhttp://imagine2050.newcomm.org/2014/02/18/nativist-groups-attack-humane-asylum-policies/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/31/latino-civil-rights-movement-bloody_n_2591317.html

Documents

The Center for Immigration Studies: A Guide to CIS's Racist Agenda--And How to Expose It