Parsing Immigration Policy

This week, Balazs Orban, a member of the Hungarian Parliament and political director for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (no relation), joins Parsing Immigration Policy to discuss the strategies Hungary has taken to prevent illegal migration despite continuing pressure from the EU. Speaking with the Center’s executive director Mark Krikorian, Orban addresses both the effects on Hungary of th...

In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Dr. Ron Hira, Associate Professor of Public Policy at Howard University, joins guest host Steve Camarota, the Center’s Director of Research, to discuss the flaws in the U.S. guest worker programs and the myths of a STEM labor shortage. Hira refutes the idea that guest worker programs are justified under the assumption that there is a shortage o...

Critical findings from recent CIS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation reveal that a Biden “humanitarian” parole program created specifically for nationals of four countries has resulted in many applicants flying in from 74 other countries. This episode of Parsing Immigration Policy draws attention to the discrepancies between the public justification for the Cuban Haitian Nicaraguan Venez...

Today’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy delves into the details and implications of this week's controversial announcement by the Biden administration that it will be granting de facto amnesty to over half a million illegal immigrants in the United States. The conversation between Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director, and Andrew Arthur, the Center’s fellow in law and policy, also...

Two former chiefs of the U.S. Border Patrol join Parsing Immigration Policy this week on the occasion of the agency’s 100th anniversary. Rodney Scott and Mark Morgan join host Mark Krikorian discuss how, despite a century of government policies that have often made it harder to secure the border, the Border Patrol has always remained committed to protecting America’s national security. Morgan emph...

In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Christopher Landau, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, joins us to discuss the election of Claudia Sheinbaum as the new president of Mexico. Amb. Landau discusses the implications of Sheinbaum’s election for U.S. immigration policy and U.S.-Mexico relations. Landau describes Sheinbaum as the protege of the current president, Andres Manuel Lopez...

The “bipartisan” border bill failed again last week in the Senate, with even its Republican co-sponsor voting against it. While it may now seem moot, it’s likely that the president and Democrats in Congress will spend the rest of the year pointing to Republican opposition to the bill as the reason for the continuing border crisis. For that reason, it’s worth examining again the provisions of the p...

In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Roy Beck, founder of NumbersUSA, joins us to discuss the 100th anniversary of the 1924 Immigration Act. President Calvin Coolidge signed it into law on May 26, 1924, and Beck outlines how, despite the various and often invidious motivations of the Act’s supporters, its effect was overwhelmingly positive for Americans of all races. Beck discusse...

In the latest episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, we delve into the security vulnerabilities concerning the historic and increasing number of Chinese nationals who are part of the record number of migrants crossing our country’s SW border. Our guest is Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow who testifies today at a House Homeland Subcommittee hearing, “Security Risk: The Unp...

This year has seen important state-level legislation on immigration. The bills that have passed throughout the country tend to be those designed to deter illegal immigration and enhance enforcement of immigration law. As state legislative sessions wrap up around the country, two successful grassroots advocates join Jessica Vaughan, Director of Policy Studies at the Center for Immigration Studies,...

The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel to discuss the history and impact of the impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Should he have been impeached? Why was he impeached? What are the consequences of the U.S. Senate’s refusal to either hold a trial itself or to appoint an impeachment trial committee to take and consider evidence? The panel featured Rep. Mark...

With the crisis in Haiti sparking fears of a new exodus and illegal crossings up in the Mediterranean, maritime illegal immigration is a challenge all destination countries are facing – one that is very different from the challenge of controlling a land border. The International Network for Immigration Research (INIR) hosted this event to address this issue, entitled “Illegal Immigration by Sea: C...

This week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy features Steve Robinson, editor-in-chief of the Maine Wire, a digital investigative news outlet, who joins our guest host, Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. The two experts discuss how Chinese criminal organizations have established illegal weed grows using trafficked labor of illegal aliens, and the...

In this week’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Todd Bensman, the Center’s senior national security fellow, joins us live from Juarez, Mexico. Bensman takes us into La Linea Cartel territory, where he is investigating the smuggling of dangerous criminals into the United States.  Reporting from the Mexican side of the border, opposite El Paso, Bensman offers a firsthand account of migrant act...

The starting point of any conversation about immigration should be the numbers. This week’s episode of the Center for Immigration Studies podcast highlights a recent report co-authored by Steven Camarota, the Center’s director of research, which examines the number and share of the foreign-born in the United States. The total foreign-born population, encompassing both legal and illegal immigrants,...

In today’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, Elizabeth Jacobs, the Center’s Director of Regulatory Affairs and Policy, does a deep dive into her  recent analysis of the new U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) fee schedule , set to take effect on April 1, 2024. Jacobs discusses how the 2024 fee rule is being leveraged to advance Biden's policy objectives, ignoring the requirement...

Campaign season is in full swing as the 2024 presidential election looms less than eight months away. According to a recent Gallup poll, immigration is considered the biggest issue facing the country, with a majority of Americans expressing disapproval of the president’s handling of the issue.  In today’s episode of Parsing Immigration Policy, host Mark Krikorian, the Center’s executive director,...

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 havi...

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. V...

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 t...

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 guestwor...

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 re...

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 Commi...

This Week's episode of the Parsing Immigration Podcast offers key findings from a European field-research trip by Todd Bensman, the Center’s national security fellow. Bensman was a visiting fellow at the Budapest-based Migration Research Institute, and examined borders in Hungary, Slovenia, Poland, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Greece. Bensman’s research revealed a resurgen...

The Center for Immigration Studies hosted a panel discussion examining present asylum laws in the United States and in Europe, how they work, their impact on illegal immigration, and proposals for reform. Members of the newly formed International Network for Immigration Research (INIR), which includes like-minded think tanks in the U.S., Israel, Hungary, France, and the UK, discussed how their cou...