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Immigration Reform to be Discussed During Obama’s State of the Union Address; Critics Weigh in on Rubio’s E-Verify Work Plan
“Using employers as a fourth arm of the government is not the framework that the founders of this country envisioned when they created the Constitution,”…
Daily Caller
Critics Accuse EPA Of Fudging The Math On Its Global Warming Rule
The Daily Caller references a CEI study in relation to EPA's new Clean Power Plan. A 2012 study by the free-market Competitive Enterprise…
Study
America Still Needs a True Entrepreneurship Visa
Immigrant entrepreneurs have long helped drive America’s economy. However, bureaucratic restrictions make coming to America to start a new business extremely difficult, and the current…
Blog
Senate Immigration Bill Authorizes E-Verify as Surveillance Tracking
The Senate immigration bill (S. 744) is immense, so most Americans (and, more importantly, journalists) can be forgiven for missing the part that authorizes…
Blog
Raul Labrador’s Sane Immigration Policy Reflects His “Libertarian Streak”
Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) has led the effort in the House to fix immigration laws in the most conservative and free market way possible.
Blog
House National ID E-Verify Bill: 6 Dangerous Provisions it Includes (And 5 Worker Protections it Excludes)
The House of Representatives has passed out of committee a bill (H.R. 1772) to mandate E-Verify electronic employment verification for all employers. This bill…
Blog
House National ID E-Verify Bill: 5 Worker Protections it Excludes (And 6 Dangerous Provisions it Includes)
The House of Representatives has passed out of committee a bill (H.R. 1772) to mandate E-Verify electronic employment verification for all employers. This bill…
Daily Caller
Internet Myth: Ronald Reagan Regretted Legalization
Americans often bolster arguments with quotes from Founding Fathers or other U.S. political icons. Unfortunately, this practice often leads to quotes being invented to support…
Blog
Gallup: Record Opposition to Closed Borders
A record number of Americans favor allowing more foreigners to enter and live in the United States each year. Nearly a quarter of Americans (23…
Daily Caller
E-Verify Exposes The Hypocrisy In Republican Free Market Rhetoric
After he introduced the Regulatory Accountability Act, Rep. Lamar Smith summarized the GOP attitude on regulation since the Tea Party movement’s influential rise. “Employers across…
Daily Caller
The zero sum rightwing
Anti-immigrant voices on the right should make up their minds: Do they believe in free markets — in freedom itself — or not? If not,…
Daily Caller
This Week in Small Business: Half-Time Report
Red Tape Pete Wise listed five legal myths small-business owners should avoid, including this one: “I don’t need a lawyer.” And David Bier explained…
Blog
What the Senate Immigration Bill Got Right
The Senate’s passage of its immigration reform bill is a meaningful victory for free markets. Free markets ought to extend beyond borders. As has been…
Blog
DOMA Decision: Win for the Rights of U.S. Citizens to Freely Associate with Foreigners
“We received a cold, brief letter from the Immigration Service notifying us that our petition had been denied. Why? Because we’re both men.” That was…
Daily Caller
Bill to Expand U.S. Database to Verify Hires
“I don’t think people really understand that this creates a regulation not just for every employer, or for every immigrant, but also for every citizen…
Blog
Border Security Doesn’t Require “Invading” the Border
When President Bush left office in January 2009, there were about 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan. If the Senate immigration bill (S. 744) passes, this…
Blog
No Help Wanted: Unions Shut Out Foreign Students
Union-backed provisions in the Senate immigration bill would punish organizations that coordinate visits for foreign students who spend summers traveling and working in America.
Blog
E-Verify: A Boon for Lawyers, Bad for Employers
I have written extensively about the threats to Americans’ civil liberties from E-Verify, the employment verification system contained within the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform (CIR)…
Blog
E-Verify National ID System Threatens Americans’ Privacy
“I’m not a criminal, so there’s really no reason for me to be in a criminal database.” That was James Shepherd, a Kentucky native…
Blog
Free Labor Markets: Why Immigrant Riots Aren’t in America’s Future
Sweden’s recent immigrant riots demonstrate America’s large advantage over Europe in assimilating immigrants.
Blog
Graph: More Visas, Less Illegal Immigration
The graph below comes from University of Pennsylvania economist Douglas Massey. It depicts the three ways Mexican migrants have come to the United States–guest…
Blog
Senate Bill: Better for Legal Immigration
Free market immigration advocates recognize that freeing up America’s legal immigration system creates economic benefits for Americans while simultaneously expanding their rights of…
Blog
Senate Bill Won’t Stop Illegal Immigration Without More Work Visas
When the Senate “Gang of 8” released their immigration reform principles earlier this year, they made an important admission: that drastic restrictions on low-skilled…
Blog
Entrepreneurship Visas in Senate Immigration Bill Are Critical
This week, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the Gang of 8 immigration bill. One provision of this bill will be welcome news to potential…
Blog
Five Reasons Immigration Creates Economic Benefits
First, if each new immigrant lowers living standards, new people also lower living standards. But without new people, America’s economy would lack the workers it…
Blog
What Happened to U.S. Wages During Mass Immigration?
America’s immigration debate often focuses on how immigrants affect the welfare state, even though many immigration restrictionists would oppose immigration even if we did…
Blog
Could a Unionized Federal Employee Reject a Visa Application for Political Reasons?
Now that IRS officials have been caught red-handed targeting conservative organizations, it is reasonable to ask whether officials at other federal agencies also need more…
Letters
Coalition Letter on E-Verify Amendment
Full Document Available in PDF We, the undersigned organizations, representing thousands of businesses and millions of Americans from all sides of the…
Daily Caller
E-Verify’s biometric database: A huge step toward a permission-slip society
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this mocking remark, Ronald Reagan dismissed a national ID proposal in 1981. In the 32 years…
Blog
Sorry, Daily Beast: E-Verify Will Be National ID
Daily Beast blogger Justin Green, who blogs on columnist David Frum’s Daily Beast blog, has responded to Wired’s recent article “Biometric Database of All…
Blog
Milton Friedman, Immigration, and Birth Control
Milton Friedman, perhaps the most important free market economist and libertarian activist of the 20th century, is also the favorite of immigration restrictionists for comments he…
Daily Caller
Could Immigration Bill Lead to Big Brother Database?
David Bier, an analyst with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, warned, “The most worrying aspect is that this creates a principle of permission basically to do…
Blog
Heritage Immigration Report Implies 70% of Americans “Increase Poverty”
The Heritage Foundation’s new report on the fiscal costs of legalization for unauthorized immigrants concluded that it will cost taxpayers $6.3 trillion. Yesterday, I…
Blog
Seven Ways Heritage Concluded Immigration Reform Will Cost $6.3 Trillion
The Heritage Foundation’s report this week that suggests legalization for unauthorized immigrants will result in a $6.3 billion fiscal deficit is an important conversation…
Blog
John Locke’s Response to Heritage: Don’t Blame Immigrants for Fiscal Problems
Washington's largest conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, has released a study that suggests legalization for illegal immigrants will cost taxpayers trillions of dollars over the next…
Daily Caller
Why Are Social Security Cards Still Easy To Fake?
Libertarians oppose such cards for a variety of reasons, one of which is the impact on businesses, according to David Bier, an immigration policy analyst…
Daily Caller
Conservatives Must Reject the “Poor Are Parasites” Narrative
When Mitt Romney made his comments about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay taxes and were supposedly “dependent on government,” many conservatives rightly…
Blog
Conservatives Must Reject the “Poor Are Parasites” Narrative
When Mitt Romney made his comments about the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay taxes and were supposedly “dependent on government,” many conservatives rightly…
Daily Caller
To Grow, The U.S. Economy Needs More Low-Skilled Immigrant Workers
Recently introduced legislation to tackle immigration reform has elements that should satisfy both liberals and conservatives–namely, strong border security metrics for conservatives and a pathway…
Blog
Anti-Immigration Group: “They’re Taking Your Jobs!”
The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), the close-America’s-doors lobby group, has a facile new study that purports to show “there really are no jobs…
Blog
What Are the National ID Implications of the Senate Immigration Bill?
1. ID standards: The bill requires all employers to check photo IDs of all employees they hire—any employee who fails to present a photo ID…
Blog
Gang Of 8’s Euphemism For National ID System: “Identity Authentication Mechanism”
Our new euphemism for a national identification system is “identity authentication mechanism.” The Gang of 8, the leaders of which are proponents of biometric national…
Products
Fact Sheet on the Senate’s E-Verify Proposal
Full Document Available in PDF…
Blog
CEI Study: Cost Of Keeping One Unauthorized Immigrant From Getting A Job — $13,000
If Americans truly want to ensure no unauthorized immigrants work in the United States, they better get ready to pay top dollar. E-Verify, the electronic…
Study
E-Verify Mandate Is Costly for Businesses and Workers
As Congress revisits immigration reform, one aspect deserves close attention: electronic employment verification. Both the White House’s leaked draft legislation and the Senate’s proposed bill…
Blog
Four Of The Worst Arguments Against The Immigration Bill
Since the Gang of 8 released their proposal, the desperation from those who want to see this bill die — and any hope of…
Blog
Seven Principles Of Free Market Immigration Reform
1. Immigration laws should value human beings. America should welcome newcomers so long as they pose no threat to the health or safety of Americans.
Blog
Americans Reject Actual E-Verify System
Imagine there was a free program that could guarantee for employers a legal workforce and eliminate illegal immigration. Would you favor such a system? Yes…
Blog
White House Immigration Bill Will Be A Disaster Without Accessible Work Visas
President Obama’s recently leaked immigration bill left off the most important component of an immigration bill: the immigration part. Given the fact that the Chamber…
Daily Caller
Controversial E-Verify System Integral Part of Immigration Reform Proposal
Organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigration Law Center and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, among many others, have expressed concerns about the…
Blog
Rand Paul: No National ID System, Including E-Verify
E-Verify is the Internet-based national identification, which the Senate wants to impose on all workers and their employers. The system, as proposed by the White…
Blog
Republican National Committee To GOP: Be More Libertarian
Blog
Obama’s Immigration Bill Forces Employers To Pay Illegal Immigrants
Nothing in this headline is a typo or an exaggeration. President Obama’s recently-leaked Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2013 would require employers to employ…
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Should Treat People As Individuals, Not Groups
Private discrimination based on national origin has been prohibited in the United States since 1965, yet the United States government continues to discriminate based on…
Daily Caller
The Third Side of the Immigration Debate
Viewed from afar, America’s immigration debate appears to center on two groups: liberals whose primary concern is the welfare of immigrants and conservatives whose primary…
Blog
E-Verify: Opening The Door For More Regulations
President Obama and the Gang of Eight senators want E-Verify -- the electronic employment verification system -- included in any comprehensive immigration reform proposal this…
Blog
Immigration Restrictions Violate Americans’ Liberty
Immigration restrictions are more than just violations of the liberties of foreigners. Truly a society that restricts the freedom of certain groups restricts the freedom…
Blog
National ID, By Itself, Violates Liberty
As I have pointed out over the past month and The Wall Street Journal’s Danny Yadron noted last week, many members of…
Letters
Coalition Letter Opposing E-Verify Mandate
CEI has sent a letter to Congress opposing a mandatory national E-Verify electronic employment verification system. Over 40 organizations signed onto the letter, which suggests…
Blog
On Selective Memory And Pretending To Care About Illegal Immigration
In immigration policy circles, there’s one thing no one wants to repeat: 1986. Anti-immigration groups call the now-infamous Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) “the…
Blog
Immigration Reform’s Economic Benefits
Comprehensive immigration reform is coming. For those that don’t speak D.C. doublespeak, that means more costly, useless, and privacy-invading border drones, more guards…
Products
E-Verify Problems and Solutions
Daily Caller
Marco Rubio immigration bill sneaks in database expansions
“Using employers as a fourth arm of the government is not the framework that the founders of this country envisioned when they created the Constitution,”…
Blog
CEI In The Wall Street Journal: E-Verify Is A Threat To Liberty
CEI founder Fred Smith co-authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal today on E-Verify — the electronic employment verification system that will likely…
Blog
National ID Proponents’ Bad Arguments
America’s new national identification system is coming. President Obama and a bipartisan group of senators want to enact a national identification card that would…
Blog
House GOP May Want Legal Pathway For All Immigrants, Not Just Those Here Illegally
Everyone knows the major obstacle to immigration reform will be legalization for the 11.1 million people in the United States who have overstayed visas or…
Blog
The New National Identification System Is Coming
“Maybe we should just brand all the babies.” With this joke, Ronald Reagan swatted down a national identification card -- or an enhanced Social Security…
Blog
New Study Links Anti-Immigration Groups To Pro–Population Control Environmentalists
America's immigration debate is heating up, and conservatives anxious about liberal solutions to the issue are looking for answers of their own. Unfortunately, the major…
Blog
6 Ways To Improve The Senate’s Immigration Proposal
“We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited.” That’s from a…
Blog
Adam Smith’s Recommendation To End Illegal Immigration
Restrictions on immigration have created a black market in labor and movement. Currently, the U.S. government issues only 10,000 green cards to workers who lack higher…
Blog
Is Liberty Innocent Until Proven Guilty?
Daily Caller
E-Verify: Immigration Reform’s Threat To Legal Workers
Ken Nagel thought it would be no problem to hire his daughter at his Phoenix restaurant. He had not considered that Arizona’s new employment verification…
Blog
Anti-Immigration Group FAIR: Market Is Like “A Mob Without Reason, Irrational and Immoral”
Last week, Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) denounced CEI’s position on immigration. Mehlman argued new foreign workers would degrade wages…
Blog
Anti-Immigration Group Repudiates Free Market Principles
My last blog post pointed out the anti-immigrant charge that “massive infusions of cheap foreign labor” impoverishes the country is fundamentally anti-people. After all,…
Blog
Anti-Immigrant? Or Just Anti-People?
What economists call “labor,” most of us just call “people.” Without people, there is no economy -- no producers, no consumers, no supply, and no…
Blog
Immigration Reform Is Not A Zero Sum Game
Tomorrow, the House of Representatives will vote on Republicans’ first post-election attempt at pro-immigration reform. But their bill, the STEM Jobs Act (H.R. 6429),…
Blog
Guest Workers Can Help End Illegal Immigration
The debate over immigration reform has focused on its long-term effects on America’s culture as well as its economy. But that obscures the fact that…
Blog
Immigration Reform Resurrected!
Nothing makes politicians see the light like losing. Even while immigration restrictionists reassure themselves that the GOP’s immigration message is fine despite losing as…
Blog
Immigration Policy Should Strive For The “City On The Hill,” Not The “Deserted Town”
Opponents of human movement, also known as “immigration,” argue that if the U.S. government stops forcibly preventing foreign-born people from relocating to the United States,…
Daily Caller
Republicans Denounce Immigration Regulations Reagan Created
“I believe this action by the Obama administration is unconstitutional and circumvents Congress’ authority.” That was Mississippi Republican Governor Phil Bryant explaining last week why…
Daily Caller
With the Economy Sputtering, Obama Must Allow High-Skilled Immigrants
In the heated immigration debate, a bright spot has emerged—the bipartisan consensus that high-skilled immigrants benefit the economy. Yet even as Congressional Democrats and Republicans…
Daily Caller
Southern Californians looking for answers during first presidential debate
From an editorial that also appeared in The Pasadena Star-News and The Whittier Daily News: David Bier, a policy analyst with the libertarian Competitive…
Daily Caller
No Real Differences Between Presidential Candidates on Immigration
“On Immigration, Obama and Romney Agree on Virtually Nothing,” declares a recent ABC News headline. The story strings together quotes from President Obama and Republican…
Daily Caller
Study blasts federal economic development initiatives
From Brian Pederson’s article in Lehigh Valley Business: A new study blasts the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) and calls for its abolishment,…
Daily Caller
The Federal Department of More Spending and Higher Local Taxes
“We believe in the free enterprise system,” President Obama said at a recent campaign stop. “But we also believe we’ve got obligations to one another.”…
Daily Caller
America’s Founders Supported Immigration
As Americans celebrated the 225th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing this Monday, thousands of new citizens at naturalization ceremonies across the country celebrated being Americans…
Study
The Case for Abolishing the Economic Development Administration
EDA investments do little more than shift resources from one area of the country or the economy to another. EDA’s funding should be immediately revoked,…
Blog
Farms Need Workers, Not Subsidies
Reports of record farm profits has CNBC’s Senior Online Editor John Carney calling America’s agricultural labor shortage “phony,” and by implication, just an excuse…
Daily Caller
Low-Skilled Immigrant Workers Are Vital Contributors To The Economy
The Republican National Committee reformed its immigration platform this month to favor a new guest worker program. Unfortunately, the party still seems unwilling to accept…
Daily Caller
TRUST Act Deceit: Federal Government Deceives Sheriffs Into Detaining Immigrants
“It’s pretty simple: federal law pre-empts state law.” That was Steve Whitmore, spokesman for Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, describing why the county…
Blog
Diverse GOP Voices Emphasize Immigrant Contributions
[caption id="attachment_59817" align="alignleft" width="266"] Former-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice[/caption] Even as the Republican National Committee adopted a platform advocating strict immigration enforcement, several influential party…
Blog
Imagine There Are No Countries
“Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do,” John Lennon once told us. Ignoring Lennon's grammatical error, that is exactly what University of Wisconsin-Madison…
Capital Research
Hospital Unionization Harms the Sick
Full Document Available in PDF Summary: Nursing is a valued career in a civilized society. It combines helping people with the economic demand for…
Capital Research
Cooperation Is What Markets Are For, Not Governments
When President Obama told a Virginia crowd last week that “if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” he was right. His…
Capital Research
President Obama’s Deportation Deferral Order Is Legal
“We will see each other down the line in litigation.” That threat was leveled by Rep. Steve King (R-IA) at Department of Homeland Security (DHS)…
Capital Research
Answers to Your Questions on Skilled Immigration
From The New York Times‘ Economix blog: Q. Do you agree with David Bier from the Competitive Enterprise Institute that “highly skilled foreign…
Capital Research
High-Skilled Immigration Restrictions Are Economically Senseless
Employer discrimination based on national origin has been illegal in the United States since the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, yet American immigration…
Capital Research
Why Everyone Should Fear E-Verify
“The only people who have to be afraid of the E-Verify system are illegal aliens and the employers who hire them.” That was Pennsylvania House…
Blog
Wrongfully Detained Citizen Challenges Immigrant Detention Regime
“What's needed is immigration reform that finally lives up to our heritage as a nation of laws and as a nation of immigrants,” President Obama…
Capital Research
Obama’s Secret Anti-Immigration Campaign
President Obama’s recent decision to defer deportations for certain children of undocumented immigrants and his administration’s lawsuit against Arizona’s tough immigration law could leave the…