Left-wing extremist Saul Alinsky may have been evil, but he also was brilliant. And some supposed conservatives have forsaken civility and embraced Alinsky's ugliest, most immoral, repulsive tactics.

Why? Because they aren't really conservatives!

Consider a couple of Alinsky's radical rules: Read more...

You might think if 261 would-be EB-5 immigrant investors – all rich residents of China – were caught up in an immigration fraud case that: 1) the Department of Homeland Security would bring the case, and 2) there would be a demand for criminal convictions.

You would be wrong on both counts. Read more...

After returning from our annual, week-long CIS trip to a portion of the U.S.-Mexico border, I watched an interesting discussion on border security between Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Univision anchor Jorge Ramos. Their interview originally aired on the February 10 "Al Punto" program. Here is an excerpt. It begins as McCain tells Ramos that he has long insisted that the border be secured before the U.S. changes its immigration law: Read more...

"What do you want to do with me?" asked confessed illegal alien Jose Antonio Vargas in the most striking (and most egocentric) line at yesterday's immigration hearing of the Senate's Judiciary Committee.

Vargas' testimony, and the hearts-and-flowers reaction of most of the Democratic senators to it, dominated the mood of the pre-Valentine's Day session and all-too-accurately reflected the approach of most of the senators to the complex immigration issues before the committee. Read more...

The February 9-10, 2013, weekend print edition of The Wall Street Journal contained an interesting article entitled, "Iranian-American Speaks for Both Sides". The article laid out the story of two naturalized American citizens originally from Iran: Amir Mohamed Estakri and his brother, Amir Ahmad Estakri. Read more...

Wednesday's Senate hearing on immigration policy is a perfect example of how to stage-manage a congressional hearing to secure the maximum advantage for the policies favored by the committee's majority.

The hearing will be before the Senate's full Judiciary Committee and the list of prospective witnesses alone promises it to be a media victory for those advocating a massive amnesty of illegal aliens.

As a sometime witness myself at such hearings, and as a frequent observer of others, let me tick off the ways that a talented committee chair can rig a hearing: Read more...

Even the advocates of a massive amnesty admit that millions of illegal aliens are also income tax violators. They routinely argue that legalizing them would produce millions of additional tax payers in the future.

If we have an amnesty, which I think is a bad idea, I would prefer that only aliens with clean tax-paying (as well as criminal) records should be considered for legalization. Read more...

Our immigration policy debate would be pretty muted if there were not so many Hispanics fleeing to the United States from Hispanic-run societies. Read more...

Two new op-eds critiquing the amnesty proposal have been authored by the Center for Immigration Studies. CIS Board Member Jan Ting's op-ed "Just say no to amnesty redux" appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, while CIS Fellow David Seminara's op-ed "Legalizing illegal immigrants a bad idea" appeared in the Chicago Tribune.

Both op-eds point out significant problems with large-scale amnesty programs.

In the most recent episode of the Ricochet Podcast, Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus talks about the need to create a permanent party infrastructure in minority communities. I defer to his expertise on the specifically political, but one idea I've had is for the Republican Party to establish a non-profit that would open "American Opportunity Centers" around the country to teach immigrants English and history/civics. Read more...

To what extent are the pro-amnesty people advocating what the illegal aliens want for themselves, and to what extent are they calling for, instead, what the advocates want to do to the illegal aliens?

That question was implied in yesterday's marathon immigration policy hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. Read more...

If you are a Democratic member of the Congress, and are paying close attention to public policy issues, you may find yourself in this situation:

You support the massive "path to citizenship" for illegals backed by the president

You support the president's efforts to restrict gun rights (as do I).

You know that illegal aliens currently cannot legally own guns.

Thus, by backing the amnesty, you would be expanding — eventually — the number of people who may lawfully own guns by 11 million or so — and every one of the 11 million would have a record of breaking the law! Read more...

When I was growing up, the rule at the dinner table was that you had to eat your spinach (or worse, boiled Brussels sprouts) before you could have your dessert.

That's a good precedent, but one that the Obama administration has not applied to either the proposed mass amnesty program as I noted in an earlier blog, nor to the rules set forth for those who are currently applying for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Read more...

If you need a brief respite the from the gloomy news of a perhaps impending massive legalization program, here are some immigration oddities reaped from the January 14 issue of Interpreter Releases, the sober-sided, irony-free trade paper for immigration lawyers. Read more...

Columnist Charles Krauthammer, a physician by training, gets the diagnosis right on the problem of the "compromise" Senate amnesty outline hatched in a back room.

Krauthammer points out how this "comprehensive" framework for mass amnesty, despite all the spin employed to try to sell it, really takes the same shape as the 1986 IRCA amnesty. Read more...

At a press conference Thursday, Senator Schumer (D–N.Y.) let it be known that the only purpose of the "comprehensive immigration reform" effort is mass legalization and increases in future legal immigration. Border security is not something the Democratic leadership is taking seriously. Those who believe that there is some agreement among political interests that border security and other measures would be in place before 11 million illegal aliens are legalized are discovering that the high-immigration side of the debate has no intention of actually seeing our laws enforced. Read more...

In the midst of a "comprehensive immigration reform" package that could legalize the controversial so-called Morton memo on prosecutorial discretion and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) directive for a DREAM Act-like deferred action amnesty (known as DACA), a legal challenge to both was upheld in a federal appeals court ruling last month. The ruling, issued by Judge Reed O'Connor in Dallas, concluded that 10 ICE agents and officers have standing to challenge both DHS initiatives aimed at limiting ICE agents from upholding immigration law. Read more...

We have all been warned against making predictions about the future. But if the future reflects the past the figure below shows what could happen to the size of the illegal alien population in 2038, 25 years from now, if the current group of 11 million illegals becomes legalized under the Obama plan. Read more...

Senator Rubio has been making a big deal of the border enforcement "trigger" that would have to be met before the amnestied illegals would be able to move from their immediately-issued green-card-lite status to a full green card. I thinks that's a mistake for a whole variety of reasons, but at least he seems to genuinely believe in the trigger idea. Read more...

The Washington Times is reporting that amidst the president's assurances that the border is secure enough for the country to pursue amnesty for 11 million or more illegal aliens, the number of border arrests is increasing. Read more...

You might have gotten the impression that the White House is proposing that the newly amnestied millions will have to pay their taxes in order to secure legal status.

You would be wrong. Read more...

Mexico's improving economic situation has received a great deal of press recently, raising hopes that fewer Mexicans will feel compelled to cross the U.S. border illegally.

Meanwhile, deteriorating economic and social conditions in much of Central America have received little attention in the English-language press. Read more...

Birth tourism — which recently has become a local controversy in Southern California — arises from a confluence of strong factors, illustrated in the diagram below.

Birth tourism is the planned birth of an infant in the United States by a visiting alien mother who seeks at-birth citizenship for the baby; typically she and the baby leave the country after the birth, but the child can return at any time in the future, and years later can set in motion the legal immigration of his or her parents and other family members. Read more...

The following is a special update from our Forrest Gump Department, which is always diligently tracking and bringing to you the latest insanities and inanities on the subject of immigration in these here United States. Read more...

Most Sweeping Statement. Univision anchorman Jorge Ramos: "It's the most important immigration news since the amnesty 27 years ago." Read more...

During an appearance on CBS This Morning, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said: "People who have not committed a crime here or done something wrong will have a legal status, but they will not be able to have citizenship until they line up behind those who came here legally to get a green card on a path to citizenship." Read more...

I know the president likes the sound of his own voice, but, really, what was the point of his immigration speech today in Las Vegas? Read more...

Two small classes of aliens who have, in effect, thumbed their noses at the United States, are now about to get their green cards — despite non-admirable behavior in the application process.

Neither group has done anything criminal, but they have (at least in my eyes) treated Uncle Sam with disdain. Despite this, USCIS has set in motion techniques for them to get admitted to the United States.

These are the careless brides and grooms, on one hand, and the overly casual, overseas relatives of people who have secured refugee or asylee status, on the other. Here are the stories: Read more...

Even amnesty advocates acknowledge that the enforcement provisions of any package deal are bogus. For instance, over at the Plum Line, Greg Sargent writes about the Senate outline's proposal for a commission of southwestern leaders to certify control over the border before the "provisionally" amnestied illegals get green cards: Read more...

A front-page article in the Washington Post breathily proclaimed that a small, self-appointed group of senators will unveil a broad overhaul of the immigration system and will stage a big announcement setting forth their accomplishment. Read more...