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Free the Economy podcast: importing talent with Connor O’Brien
In this week’s episode we talk about the major income tax case going to the Supreme Court, the looming death of ESG…
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: online trust with Taylor Barkley
In this week’s episode we talk about a survey on work trends for finance bros, Delta’s questionable bid to become the first…
Blog
California Supreme Court Upholds Pension Reform, Punts on ‘California Rule’
On Monday, March 4, the California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, upheld a major provision in the state’s 2012 pension reform legislation, but punted…
Search Posts
Citation
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…
Op-Eds
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…
Citation
What we learned about immigration reform yesterday
Not a single right-leaning think tank rose in defense of Heritage’s anti-immigration study. The American Enterprise Institute, the Cato Institute, Manhattan Institute, the Competitive Enterprise…
Op-Eds
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
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…
News Release
E-Verify Mandate Would Impose New Costs on American Businesses, Workers
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 22, 2013 – If the Senate’s comprehensive immigration reform proposal becomes law, one provision alone—that employers use E-Verify to confirm work eligibility—will…
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…
News Release
CEI Immigration Analyst: Gang of 8 Proposal ‘A Good Starting Point’
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 17, 2013 – A bipartisan proposal to reform America’s immigration system provides “a good starting point” for discussion but could be improved…
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…
Citation
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
CEI Podcast For March 7, 2013: The Three-Sided Immigration Debate
Immigration Policy Analyst David Bier recently wrote for USA Today about a third side in the ongoing immigration debate: population control advocates who oppose immigration…
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…
Op-Eds
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…
News Release
Diverse Coalition Opposes E-Verify Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C., February 21, 2013 – This Thursday, an ideologically-diverse coalition of forty-five organizations led by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, National Small Business Association,…
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
Citation
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…
Wall Street Journal
E-Verify’s ‘Hang Everyone’ Approach
This op-ed was coauthored by Laura Murphy, director of the ACLU's Washington Legislative Office If you hang everyone, the old saying goes, you…
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…
Wall Street Journal
Coming to America? It’s Going to Cost You
Meanwhile, even unauthorized immigrants from Central America pay between $7,000 and $10,000 in smuggling fees to get across the border, according…
Wall Street Journal
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),…
News Release
STEM Jobs Act a Step Backward on Immigration Reform, Warns Free Market Group
WASHINGTON D.C., Nov. 29, 2012 – This Friday, the House of Representatives will vote on the STEM Jobs Act (H.R. 6429). The bill would…
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,…
Wall Street Journal
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…