Center for Immigration Studies Plays with Numbers and Bigotry

February 23, 2009 by Eric Ward
Filed under: Immigration 
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British statesman George Canning once said “I can prove anything by statistics – except the truth.” It seems that the anti-immigrant organization the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) has taken the quote to heart. In January the Immigration Policy Center blasted CIS for distorting data for simple political advantage.

Founded in 1985 to serve as the statistical arm to an anti-immigrant network created by nativist and white nationalist John Tanton, the Center for Immigration Studies has been quoted frequently by unaware journalists, and its data used without qualifications by elected officials and academics around the United States.

Since the beginning of February the head of CIS, Mark Krikorian, has been increasingly under fire for his association with nativist John Tanton and the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The national civil rights organization The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) reported in a February 2009 Special Report that Krikorian’s relationship with Tanton and FAIR were much more extensive than he had led the public to believe.

In the report SPLC reveals a letter Tanton in which tells a potential philanthropist that to give CIS a sense of credibility it would need to be independent of FAIR. Tanton continues in his letter to make clear that CIS would be starting off as a project of FAIR.

Krikorian is busy at work trying to protect the image of CIS. Reeling from the increased pressure to publicly distance itself from the hate group FAIR, CIS’s Krikorian went as far as to publicly respond to the Southern Poverty Law Center in his column on the conservative National Review Online. While spending most of his column attacking multiculturalism, Krikorian chooses not to respond to any of the disturbing charges brought forth by SPLC in its special report. More disturbingly Krikorian refuses to discuss the charge that much of the data that CIS puts forth may not be quite as factual as it should be.

Not only has the CIS data proven to be suspect but increasingly its leadership as well. In February, the Center for New Community alerted readers in its e-bulletin FAIR Exposed that CIS had posted for circulation to its supporters 14 articles from the white nationalist website VDARE. VDARE, named for Virginia Dare allegedly the “first white child born in America,” publishes the works of numerous white nationalists including Jared Taylor and the late Sam Francis. The website also features Kevin MacDonald, who accusing Jews for conspiring to destroy United States through immigration.

American statesman Henry Clay once told the American public that “statistics are no substitute for judgment.” Journalists and public officials have a duty to use their best judgment to ensure that citizens have the most accurate information to guide our decision. It’s time to reject CIS’s veneer of respectability.

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