Via Adam Serwer at the American Prospect, we learn that Mark Krikorian’s organization has jumped on the “Terror Baby” bandwagon – with a “laughably debunkable” report:
The restrictionist Center for Immigration studies has published a study attempting to add a scholarly veneer to Texas Republican Rep. Louis Gohmert‘s “terror baby” threat, proving once again that there literally is no culture war panic too stupid that some conservative think tank won’t try to mainstream it. The first sentence of the “background” section of the report is laughably debunkable:
Observers have begun to focus on the fact that, with some frequency, pregnant women cross the border illegally with the specific intent to bear their children in the United States, thus gaining for the children the gift of citizenship and ultimately a legal foothold for the parents and siblings as well when the child is old enough (21 years of age) to file a petition on their behalf for permanent resident alien status.
In the real world, 91 percent of children born to undocumented immigrants in 2009 and 2010 came to the U.S. before 2007, indicating that “birthright tourism” is mostly a myth.
Yep, “birthright tourism” is mostly a myth, and the “terror baby” hysteria is even more far-fetched. But CIS is on board. Although, as Serwer notes:
CIS allowed the author of this report, “a retired government employee with many years of experience in immigration administration, law enforcement, and national security matters,” to do so under a pseudonym, which is understandable because it’s really embarrassing.
Embarrassing and “laughingly debunkable” have never been deterrents to Krikorian and CIS. Witness his derogatory remarks about Puerto Rico, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Haiti, to start. Then read how he blames immigrants and Hispanics for voter fraud, global warming, the health care crisis, and the demise of Wall Street. Terror babies is just a logical extension for the illogical thinking of Krikorian and his group, which was founded by white nationalist John Tanton.
As a reminder, this is what CIS is defending:
