Good news first – Writing for the Cato Institute, Alex Nowrasteh, who we took to task on our blog for deliberately distorting the FAIR Congressional Task Force candidate immigration pledge, has been stung into trying to deflect our criticism. In his attempt to do so he cites FAIR’s critique of the current legal immigration system.
The bad news is that Nowrasteh disingenuously equates FAIR’s proposed ending of “chain migration” (ending the entitlement of immigrants who become U.S. citizens to sponsor their siblings and other family members) with being opposed to legal immigration in general – which is totally false. His original swipe at FAIR’s pledge clearly implied that the pledge was against all legal immigration, not just chain migration.
Once again, we suggest that Mr. Nowrasteh familiarize himself with the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform [aka the Jordan Commission]. If he does his homework, he will find that it recommended – with only one dissent – that U.S. immigration law be restructured to eliminate the visa preference entitlement for siblings and adult children that constitute chain migration. FAIR supported the Jordan Commission recommendations, many of which reflected long-standing positions of FAIR, and we continue to share the view of the Commission that those recommendations are in the long-term interests of the nation.