“…the bill before you in no way significantly increases the basic numbers of immigrants to be permitted entry. We are not talking about increased immigration…”  Rep. Emmanuel “Manny” Celler (D-NY), one of the principal authors of the “Hart-Celler” Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, promising to keep immigration levels to under 300,000 per year. “The last thing we need is to say we’re … Continued

Adapted from a January 22, 2025 newsletter from NumbersUSA Co-CEOs Anne Manetas and Roy Beck THIS REALLY IS A BIG DEAL.We have to go back to the Secure The Fence Act of 2006 to find the kind of bipartisan support for a new law to address enforcement failures. Back then, bipartisan support came from the likes of … Continued

President Trump signed a bevy of immigration-related executive orders on his first day in office. We’ll have more to tell you about these orders in the days ahead. You’ll see in our short explanations below that Trump’s first actions focus on ending what NumbersUSA Co-CEO Roy Beck calls “the federal government’s recent practice of the … Continued

The Biden-Harris approach to immigration was to ignore the numbers and focus on making an “orderly” system. Their approach to illegal immigration was to make as much of it “legal” as they could. Even in a large country such as the U.S., that approach was doomed to failure. “Of course, it’s important to have laws … Continued

Rep. Ken Calvert has introduced the first “Great Immigration Solution” bill in the House, H.R. 251, the Legal Workforce Act. This bill would fulfill one of the Jordan Commission’s key recommendations by permanently reauthorizing E-Verify and phasing in its mandatory use. Rep. Calvert is a stalwart champion of strengthening interior enforcement. His career in the House spans four decades … Continued

Barbara Jordan died twenty-eight years ago on this day, January 17th. Her last act of public service to the national community that she loved was to lead the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. At the time of her death, she was on the cusp of ushering in a new golden age of immigration.  Her … Continued

After four years of the largest wave of immigration in history, voters delivered a decisive immigration election in 2024. The border crisis was the insult to the injury of sixty years of broken promises; promises to set limits; promises to enforce them. Voters’ message to Washington: lower the numbers and make us believe it. If anything, the public’s … Continued

Before he left office in January 2021, President Trump issued a regulation to end the H-1B visa lottery and replace it with a system that awarded the controversial visas based on salaries (highest to lowest). The aim was to make it harder to use the visa program to bring in entry level workers. H-1B visas … Continued

Citizens of other nations can enter the U.S. on a tourist visa (or cross the border illegally), take a weekend vacation, deliver a baby, and the U.S. government will automatically bestow U.S. citizenship on the newborn. When the child turns 18, the whole family becomes eligible for green cards. This is incompatible with the global … Continued