NumbersUSA is an immigration reduction organization whose intent is to reduce the United States' annual immigration to pre-1965 levels, without country of origin quotas as established in the Immigration Act of 1924. The organization was founded in 1997, with the support of immigration reduction activist John Tanton[1], by former journalist Roy Beck, its current executive director.
NumbersUSA lobbies the executive and legislative branches for immigration reduction. Members can create an online account and send pre-written faxes to government officials as well as receive e-mail alerts with instructions for telephone calls to Congress. It operates Americans for Better Immigration, which scores U.S. representatives and senators on their immigration-related votes.[3]
NumbersUSA shares office space with ProEnglish, an organization advocating English as the official language of government in the U.S.[4]
On June 28, 2007, NumbersUSA claimed a victory after a sweeping immigration bill collapsed in the U.S. Senate. The organization's members used information and tools from NumbersUSA to contact legislators and voice opposition.[1]
Policy positions
NumbersUSA's position is that the United States has become overpopulated due to high levels of immigration caused by the Hart-Celler Act of 1965. They assert that without increased immigration since 1970, America would currently have achieved zero population growth or even a net population reduction. Any recent U.S. population growth can therefore be attributed to immigration since 1970, not the fertility rate of the pre-1970 native population.
NumbersUSA tends to evaluate legislation based primarily on its overall impact on immigration levels. Legislation that would increase immigration is therefore opposed by NumbersUSA and, conversely, legislation that would decrease immigration is lobbied for aggressively by NumbersUSA. NumbersUSA believes that immigration in modest levels is beneficial to the United States, but it defines the optimal immigration level as being about 200,000 new immigrants per year, which is a fraction of the recent levels of one million immigrants or more per year.
Besides reducing the overall numerical levels of annual legal and illegal immigration, NumbersUSA has some immediate objectives, such as the elimination of "chain migration" and the elimination of the Diversity Immigrant Visa lottery.
Statements
NumbersUSA states that it is a "non-profit, non-partisan, public policy organization that favors an environmentally sustainable and economically just America. [It] opposes efforts to use federal immigration policies to force mass U.S. population growth and to depress wages of vulnerable workers."
NumbersUSA also states that it is "pro-environment, pro-worker, pro-liberty and pro-immigrant. Activists in the NumbersUSA Action network are Americans of all races and include many immigrants and the spouses, children and parents of immigrants."
Criticism
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes NumbersUSA as part of a network of "anti-immigration" organizations created by John Tanton.[5] However, NumbersUSA's policy positions and statements indicate that it is "pro-immigrant" and favors annual immigration of 200,000. Also, the New York Times reports that "Mr. Beck said Numbers USA had been independent of Dr. Tanton since 2002. On the group's Web site, Mr. Beck cautions against 'immigrant bashing' and says, 'Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported.'"[1]
References
External links
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Illegal immigration to the United States and related topics |
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