U.S. Immigration Policy Is NOT Racist

Investigative Reports |Press Releases

September 19, 2022

IRLI report examines history, debunks popular anti-borders talking point

WASHINGTON—For years, the anti-borders movement has spread the idea that America needs to greatly expand its influx of foreign nationals, in part because U.S. immigration policy has been and continues to be inherently racist. The Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) recently conducted an extensive analysis of this claim. The overwhelming amount of evidence shows that U.S. immigration policy is NOT racist.

Mother Jones magazine recently ran an article pushing the idea that Western immigration laws – particularly those of the United States – all flow from the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and are inherently racist. And the left-wing magazine seems to suggest that U.S. immigration law engages in the systemic oppression of non-white people, to the social, economic and political advantage of Caucasians.

There’s a problem with that theory, however: the number of immigrants to the U.S. who can be safely presumed to be of some ethnicity other than Caucasian would appear to be somewhere between 84 percent and 90 percent of the total immigrant population.

“Current immigration patterns may be a lot of things. But one thing they are most definitely not is white and European,” the report states. “The reality is that the overwhelming majority of people currently immigrating to America are not Caucasian and U.S. immigration policies are the most color-blind and inclusive in the world.”

The IRLI report examined data from U.S. law, census reports and non-government organizations which completely refutes the claims of Mother Jones and other partisan anti-borders groups who create a narrative that simply does not align with the facts.

“It’s mind-boggling that Mother Jones can claim U.S. immigration policies are racist, said Matt O’Brien, IRLI’s director of investigations, whose department produced the report. “In fact, an objective review of the facts clearly shows that America’s immigration laws are the most colorblind in the entire world.”

The full text of the report can be viewed here.   

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