The latest conventional wisdom about reforming America's immigration policies takes the form of touting "skill-based immigration." An extreme example in point is a New York Times op-ed this week entitled "Foreign Stimulus." In their proposal, the authors Pia Orrenius and Madeline Zavody argue that our current immigration system be replaced with a national auction for both skilled and unskilled labor. Read more...

Politico is up with a story whose title's obviousness, "Midterms imperil immigration bill," belies its importance. The story estimates that as many as 17 Senate seats of those who voted at one point or another for "comprehensive immigration reform" and amnesty would change hands. Read more...

The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday on the latest Quinnipiac University national survey on American opinions about various immigration matters. Read more...

At the heart of the Pew report is its estimate that the number of illegal immigrants in the United States has declined by approximately 900,000 persons. For purposes of this entry, we accept that figure to ask why, exactly, the number of illegal immigrants might have declined. Read more...

At the heart of the Pew report is the claim that, to the extent the statistical estimates and weighting are correct, the overall estimated numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States has declined. At least, that is what the Pew report's title suggests is its most noteworthy finding. And it is point that almost all news accounts emphasize. Read more...

At the heart of the Pew report is the finding that the overall estimated numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States have declined from a peak of 12 million to 11.1 million, a net decline of 900,000 illegal immigrants. At least, this is what the report's title suggests that Pew believes is its most noteworthy finding. The decline is also the point that almost all accounts of the Pew report emphasize. Read more...

The basic approach of both the recent Pew report and those of the Department of Homeland Security in estimating the number of illegal immigrants currently in the United States is based on the "residual method" and seems, on first glance to be quite straightforward. Read more...

The recently released Pew report on the decline of the illegal population in the United States has garnered a lot of attention, though a great deal of it for the wrong reasons. Obama administration officials are already touting their policies to account for the decline. Read more...

The new report from the Pew Hispanic Center is certain to be widely discussed and widely misunderstood. The report delivers the conclusion most likely to be quoted in its title, "U.S. Unauthorized Immigration Flows Are Down Sharply Since Mid-Decade." Read more...

The philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn revolutionized his field with the 1962 publication of a seminal book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. In it he argued that science, no less than other forms of human effort, proceeded on the basis of its own received beliefs. These beliefs formed the foundation of what was deemed acceptable scientific practice and provided as well the basic framework for examining science's results. Read more...

Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, a specialist in German public opinion research, published a book in 1984 with the University of Chicago Press, entitled The Spiral of Silence. In it, she tried to understand why ordinary Germans had not been more vocal in their opposition to the gradual rise and consolidation of Hitler's regime. Read more...

It is easy to get into trouble when you divide this vast, diverse country into two dichotomous parts and claim that distinction explains something enormously significant. Read more...

The usually sensible New York Times columnist Ross Douthat careens into a conceptual immigration ditch in trying to divide Americans into those who welcome immigrants as long as they profess allegiance to this country's iconic creedal ideals and those who "often strikes cruder, more xenophobic notes." In two different entries last week – "Islam in Two Americas" and "Assimilation and Nativism" – he made an unfortunate and ill-founded distinction between those for whom "allegiance to the Constitution trumps ethnic differences, language barriers and religious divides" and those who expect "new arrivals to assimilate themselves to these norms, and quickly" and one might add "or else"! Read more...

Reports this past weekend depict a brutally frank exchange between President Obama and Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) about border control and amnesty legislation. Kyl reports that in a one-on-one meeting with the president they discussed securing the border in the context of pending legislation to enact "comprehensive immigration reform." Kyl reports the president as saying, "The problem is, . . . Read more...

"What would the Gipper do" is a question that some Republicans ask when they don't understand how, exactly, to apply Ronald Reagan's core character and worldview to the problems that America faces today. The result is a search for one or more "truths" to validate the author's speculations regarding what Reagan would have done relying on a direct extrapolation of America's circumstances in 1986, almost a quarter of a century ago, to those today. Read more...

eu•phe•mism
Noun (from the Greek euphēmismos, from euphēmos auspicious, sounding good.)
1: the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant.

Politico recently reported that the Democrats have come up with a tough new immigration strategy. It consists of "talking like Republicans"! Read more...

The Washington Post recently ran a story about Shura Wallin, an immigration activist who, with her group of 140 volunteers who call themselves Los Samaritanos, assist illegal immigrants making the potentially hazardous trip across the Sonoran Desert. Read more...