The Historic Surge of Illegal Immigration Under President Biden

By Eric Ruark

International audiences who follow American media are aware that under President Joe Biden, “unprecedented migration” to the United States occurred. The term migration is wholly appropriate here in the sense that millions of people from around the world crossed the U.S. border. However, under U.S. law, these migrants were overwhelmingly inadmissible aliens – an alien … Continued

The Laken Riley Act set to be first bill signed into law by President Trump

By Jeremy Beck

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

Trump fulfills “birthright citizenship” campaign promise + more executive orders

By Jeremy Beck

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

Immigration, Wildfires, and Resilience

By Jeremy Beck

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

House passes Laken Riley Act with stronger bipartisan support than last time

By Jeremy Beck

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

A Tale of Two Transitions

By Jeremy Beck

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

Today’s immigration system is a broken promise

By Jeremy Beck

Adapted from a NumbersUSA newsletter (November 4, 2024) Sixty years ago, a majority of Congress, and the president of the United States, vowed that they would not increase immigration, which was about 300,000 per year at the time. They broke that promise. And Congress has continued to break that promise every year for sixty years. “On the Ballot: An Immigration System Most … Continued

A post-election progressive argument for immigration limits

By Jeremy Beck

Note: NumbersUSA is a nonpartisan organization. We are moderates, conservatives & liberals working together to empower voters to achieve a sensible immigration policy. Immigration cost the Democratic Party dearly this year. Alexander Bolton of The Hill reports: “The final New York Times/Siena College poll of likely voters in the seven battleground states found immigration ranked nearly as … Continued

34 years of the Immigration Act of 1990

By Jeremy Beck

President George H. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 into law 34 years ago. The anniversary fell on “Black Friday” this year. The legislation certainly was a steal of a deal for anyone in the market for discount labor. The bill opened up access to the global workforce to an extent not seen since … Continued