Immigration Fact Check

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Refugees, Immigrants and Public Benefits

Not all emails are equal or even accurate. Anti-immigrant activists like to stir up anger by distorting the facts with dishonest claims. This fact sheet addresses the misinformation that anti-immigrant activists propagate in emails that wrongfully accuse immigrants of using and abusing public benefits. (September 8, 2008)

What Happens When Local Cops Become Immigration Agents?

Using the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office case files, interviews with top-ranking officers, and other sources of data, reporters at the East Valley Tribune uncovered startling facts about the enormous price--both financial and social--of Sheriff Arpaio's immigration enforcement activities. (August 6, 2008)

CIS Report Marred by Inaccuracies, Contradictions, and Wishful Thinking

Most researchers agree that undocumented immigration to the United States is driven largely by economics. Yet, in a new report entitled "Homeward Bound: Recent Immigration Enforcement and the Decline in the Illegal Alien Population," CIS dubiously claims that undocumented immigrants decide where to live and work based more on the politics of immigration enforcement than the economics of their own survival. The persuasiveness of CIS’ argument is undermined not only by an absence of hard data, but by the faulty logic and contradictory statements of the report itself. (July 30, 2008)

False Alarm Over Non-Problem of Non-Citizen Voting

Election experts tend to agree that modern-day voter fraud is a largely rare and irrational occurance in the United States. But lack of evidence is not an obstacle for the Heritage Foundation, which on July 10 issued a rambling legal memorandum claiming that an unknowable yet large number of non-citizens are voting illegally and subverting the electoral process. (July 24, 2008)

The U.S. Economy Still Needs Highly Skilled Foreign Workers

It might seem that the recent souring of the U.S. economy and rise in unemployment has rendered moot the debate over whether or not the United States really “needs” the highly skilled foreign workers who come here on H-1B temporary visas. But the demand for H-1B workers still far outstrips the current cap of only 65,000 new H-1B visas that can be issued each year. (July 2008)

The Politics of Contradiction: Immigration Enforcement vs. Economic Integration

Money for Nothing: Immigration Enforcement without Immigration Reform Doesn't Work

While the U.S. government has poured billions upon billions of dollars into immigration enforcement, the number of undocumented immigrants in the United States has increased dramatically. Rather than reducing undocumented immigration, this enforcement-without-reform strategy has diverted the resources and attention of federal authorities to the pursuit of undocumented immigrants who are drawn here by the labor needs of our own economy. (May 2008)

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