Immigration Organization of the Week: NumbersUSA

By: Amy Crawford 1:52 pm

Immigration is a fraught issue, and in recent years dozens of groups have sprung up to advocate for one position or the other, to lobby Congress, to fund candidates, or to fight it out in the courts. With all the vague or patriotic-sounding names, it can get pretty confusing. You might see spokespeople from these organizations quoted as experts in news articles, but sometimes reporters fail to identify a group’s position. This weekly feature will help you become a savvier consumer of immigration news.

This week’s organization, NumbersUSA, wants to drastically reduce immigration, lowering the number of immigrants to those allowed in under the 1924 Quota Act.
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Name: NumbersUSA

Type: 501(c)(4), the designation for “Civic Leagues and Social Welfare Organizations” like the National Rifle Association or AARP. NumbersUSA is technically non-partisan, however it usually endorses Republican candidates.

Stance: NumbersUSA’s primary complaint about immigration is that it contributes to overpopulation. The group’s website bemoans Americans’ “deteriorating quality of life due to sprawl, congestion, overcrowded schools, lost open spaces and increasing restrictions on their individual liberty in order to handle the new population explosion!” (Punctuation original.)

Activities: NumbersUSA blames U.S. immigration law for this perceived overpopulation, and it and its members lobby Congress and the executive branch for reduced immigration, both legal and illegal, beefed-up border security and enforcement of existing immigration laws. Numbers takes credit for preventing comprehensive immigration reform from passing last year. It also endorses “True Reform Candidates” for Congress and state offices.

Funding: The organization solicits contributions from conservative foundations and members of the public. According to RightWeb, its budget was $1.5 million in 2005.

Major Players: Former environmental journalist Roy Beck founded NumbersUSA in 1997, a year after he published The Case Against Immigration, which argued that immigration was bad for the working class. NumbersUSA is affiliated with and funded by FAIR founder and notorious anti-immigration activist John Tanton, though the exact relationship is somewhat sketchy.

Controversy: Like many immigration restriction organization, NumbersUSA is often accused of nativism or racism, especially since the group advocates for harsh treatment of illegal immigrants. Roy Beck addressed these charges in a statement titled “‘No’ to immigrant bashing.”

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This entry was written by Amy Crawford, posted on September 3, 2008 at 1:52 pm, filed under Immigration: New Voters, Old Fears and tagged , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.

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    NumbersUSA responds.

    Some inaccuracies are present this profile.

    (1) "The organization solicits contributions from conservative foundations and members of thepublic ."

    It's "conservation " not "conservative." Is your sentence above based on the New York Times article of 7/15/2007? That aricle says, "Mr. Beck said that in the past the group received about two-thirds of its money from foundations like the Colcom Foundation of Pittsburgh and the Weeden Foundation in New York. Many of these foundations have an interest in conservation."

    (2) "NumbersUSA is affiliated with and funded by FAIR founder and notorious anti-immigration activist John Tanton, though the exact relationship is somewhat sketchy."

    NumbersUSA is neither affiliated with nor funded by John Tanton. After Roy Beck started NumbersUSA with Roy Beck’s own money, John Tanton made some small contributions amounting to less than 0.3% of the total funding of the organization. The New York Times article says that, "Mr. Beck said Numbers USA had been independent of Dr. Tanton since 2002." That means NumbersUSA has not received any contributions from Tanton since 2002. Roy Beck did start NumbersUSA while he worked for John Tanton. But people often start businesses and non-profits while they are working for somebody else. After all, you need to have money coming in while you set things up. It doesn’t mean there is any affiliation.

    (3) "NumbersUSA is technically non-partisan, however it usually endorses Republican candidates."

    We do not endorse candidates and we are non-partisan. We give every candidate a chance to take our surveys. We post information about their position on immigration. That doesn't constitute an endorsement of the candidate. Other issues about the candidate that we don't keep track of might mean that, overall, the candidate is not worthy of your vote. As for members of congress, we give them an immigration grade based on how their immigration votes effect immigration numbers. Our lobbying team has both Democrats and Republicans on it, and we work closely with congressional members of both parties.

    (4) "It also endorses "True Reform Candidates" for Congress and state offices."

    We don't endorse. We are saying they have a position on the immigration issue that is largely in accord with that of NumbersUSA. Some of our members do choose how to cast their vote based solely on the immigration issue.
 
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