The Federation for American Immigration Reform, founded in 1979, is the nation’s oldest anti-immigration organization. Some progressive and immigrant-advocacy organization charge that it is a “hate group” that embraces “extremism.” On the far right, FAIR is criticized for its moderate “reform lite” approach to immigration reform. Among close observers, policymakers, and the media, there is widespread agreement that FAIR is the nation’s most influential organization advocating lower levels of immigration.
Whatever one’s view on immigration or immigrants, given the influence of FAIR in the immigration debate, both in Washington and in the heartland, understanding FAIR’s position on immigration reform and its work both in Washington and at the state and local level is essential to any understanding of the immigration debate in the United States today. FAIR’s slogan is “Restoring Common Sense to America’s Immigration System.” In FAIR’s view, such a common sense immigration reform means “a temporary moratorium on all immigration except spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and a limited number of refugees.” Such a moratorium “would allow us to hold a national debate and devise a comprehensive immigration reform strategy. A workable immigration policy is one that would allow us time to regain control of our borders and reduce overall levels of immigration to more traditional levels of about 300,000 a year.” In an apparent effort to contrast its own efforts with those of immigrant advocacy organizations, FAIR identifies itself as an organization that responds to the interests of U.S. citizens, rather than immigrants. “True immigration reform — the kind that places the interests of the American people first — is a subject that many in the Washington power elite would prefer not to discuss,” says FAIR. Its two goals are: ending illegal immigration through enforcement of existing immigration laws as well as the application of new technology, and setting legal immigration as the lowest feasible levels consistent with the nation’s present and future interests.
To accomplish these goals, FAIR has set out three objectives or thrusts of its work: public education, informing leaders in government, universities, and media of the costs of uncontrolled immigration, and influencing policy by lobbying and court cases. Pro-immigration and anti-immigration groups both say that they are the true reformers. On the extreme, immigration advocates say the groups like FAIR are not interested in reform but only in restriction and removal, while FAIR and other groups say that immigration advocates don’t want true reform but rather support open borders. In outlining is seven principles for “true comprehensive immigration reform,” FAIR says the “evidence that illegal immigration and mass immigration are harming our country is overwhelming and irrefutable.” “True reform,” says FAIR, “must adhere to this set of immutable principles.” FAIR’s Seven Principles of True Comprehensive Immigration Reform are:
1. Cut the Numbers: Any level of illegal immigration is unacceptable, and current legal immigrant admissions of about one million persons each year are entirely too many.2. No Amnesty or Mass Guest-Worker Program: Any new amnesty measure will further weaken respect for our immigration law. (As an adjunct to this second principle, FAIR warns: “Redefining illegal aliens as “guest-workers” or anything else is just that: a redefinition that attempts to hide the fact it is an amnesty, not reform.”) 3. Protect Wages and Standards of Living: Immigration policy should not be permitted to undermine opportunities for America's poor and vulnerable citizens to improve their working conditions and wages. The need for guest workers must be determined by objective indicators that a shortage of workers exists, i.e., extreme wage inflation in a particular sector of the labor market. 4. Major Upgrade in Interior Enforcement, Led by Strong Employers Penalties: Employers who knowingly employ unauthorized workers are the magnet that attracts illegal entry into the U.S. Effective immigration enforcement on the border and the interior of the country requires that staffing, equipment, detention facilities, and removal capabilities be adequate to fully meet current needs. 5. Stop Special Interest Asylum Abuse: America must honor it responsibilities to protect people who are fleeing true political persecution as defined by U.S. and international law. Efforts to expand those definitions to include all forms of “social persecution” invite massive fraud and endanger the security of this nation. 6. Immigration Time Out: “We need to restrict immigration to the minimum consistent with stabilizing the U.S. population. 7. Equal Under the Law: There should be no favoritism toward immigrants based on nationality, and all admission of immigrants should come under a single, stable ceiling. These are the principles that will guide FAIR's formidable education and lobbying efforts as it mounts its campaign to battle all efforts by an Obama administration and Democratic Congress to address the immigration crisis with measures that attempt to move immigration policy beyond the "enforcement first" and "enforcement only" approaches implemented by the Bush administration. Immigrant advocates and those that favor liberal immigration reform will need to counter the arguments and principles that FAIR sets forth.
- Tom Barry, November 3, 2004
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TransBorder ProjectThe TransBorder Project, directed by Tom Barry, is a program of the Center for International Policy. As a senior analyst at CIP, Barry specializes in immigration policy, U.S.-Mexico border issues, and homeland security. He writes for CIP's Americas Program.Tom Barry on Fresh Air |
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