Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the immigration restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies, told a Washington-area radio program yesterday that in the eyes of his organization, “job number one” for any congressional deal extending protections for Dreamers is “ending chain migration,” the term that the anti-immigration movement uses to describe policies that allow immigrants to reunite with members of their immediate families.
Krikorian has long said that he would be open to a deal to protect Dreamers as long as it comes with an extensive list of his own priorities on immigration. He told the “Mornings on the Mall” program yesterday that at the top on that list of priorities is cutting back on the ability of legal immigrants to sponsor visas for members of their immediate families.
As we wrote recently, under current law, “U.S. citizens can apply for visas for their spouses, parents and minor children, and for adult children and siblings until the system reaches an annual numerical cap. Legal permanent residents can apply to bring spouses and children, with an annual numerical cap.” House Republicans are pushing a plan that would provide limited protections for DACA recipients in exchange for dramatically reducing legal immigration. One aspect of that plan would be to limit the family members immigrants can sponsor to spouses and minor children.
“Chain migration, basically, has taken over our whole immigration system, where yesterday’s immigrants are the ones who just decide who tomorrow’s immigrants are going to be instead of government policy,” Krikorian told “Mornings on the Mall” host Vince Coglianese.
“That really, for me, is job number one, ending that,” he added.
After Krikorian compared “chain migration” to a shampoo commercial that urged consumers to recommend the product to their friends, resulting in exponential increases in shampoo sales, Coglianese said, “So chain migration is a pyramid scheme, but it involves a product people actually want.”
“Exactly, and it never ends,” Krikorian said.
