The headline on a news story reads, "Rupert Murdoch Calls for Amnesty for 'Law-Abiding' Illegal Immigrants." (Watch the congressional hearing where he said this, which also featured CIS Director of Research Steven Camarota, here.) Read more...

Watch we do, not what we say, John Mitchell famously said as the Nixon administration set out to further the cause of African American civil rights in the South and elsewhere with its conservative rhetoric as a cover.

"Don't watch what do, but believe what we say" is the Obama administration's deceptive rhetorical strategy. Case in point: the health care coverage of illegal immigrants. Read more...

Anyone who spends much time trying to sort through the complex issues and equities associated with immigration policy becomes almost numb to the ceaseless repetition of convention narrative memes. Most illegal-immigrant narratives reflect either exculpation or empathetic explanation: Illegal immigrants are here because they do the jobs that Americans don't want to do. They are here because they only seek a better life, and who can criticize them for wanting that for themselves and their families? Illegal immigrants pay their taxes. And so on. Read more...

It was several decades ago, I was doing some research at the southern frontier, and I was chatting with a Border Patrol Supervisor near the Rio Grande. He was relaxed and talkative, apparently between crises.

I had raised the subject of Social Security numbers and illegal aliens.

"You know, one of my buddies and I kicked around an idea about that," he said. Read more...