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| Founders | Roy Beck[1] [2] |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Arlington, VA |
| Staff | Roy Beck, Executive Director; Rosemary Jenks, Government Relations Director[3] |
| Revenue | US$ 4.30 million (2007)[3] |
| Endowment | US$ 3.43 million [3] |
| Members | 640,000(July 2008) [4] |
| Motto | For Lower Immigration Levels |
| Website | www.numbersusa.com |
NumbersUSA is an immigration reduction organization whose intent is to reduce the United States' annual immigration to pre-1965 levels, without country of origin quotas as established in the Immigration Act of 1924.
Contents |
Founding
The organization was founded in 1997 by Roy Beck while he worked for anti-immigration environmental activist John Tanton.[5] Beck says that he started NumbersUSA after he wrote The Case Against Immigration (ISBN 0393039153). In the course of researching the book he tracked many of the problems in the US to immigration.[6] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes NumbersUSA as part of a network of "anti-immigration" organizations created by Tanton.[7] The Wall Street Journal also identifies NumbersUSA as one of a half dozen groups founded or funded by Tanton in order to stop immigration and promote population control.[8] However, Beck says that NumbersUSA has been independent of Tanton since 2002.
Activities
NumbersUSA lobbies the executive and legislative branches for immigration reduction. Members can create an online account and send member customizable faxes with pre-written headers to government officials. Legislative staff will often circle the totally custom post script to avoid the often pre-written main text.[citation needed] Members as well also receive e-mail alerts with instructions for telephone calls to Congress. It operates Americans for Better Immigration, which scores U.S. representatives and senators on their immigration-related votes.[9]
NumbersUSA is a member of the Coalition for the Future American Worker.[10] It shares Arlington, VA office space with ProEnglish, an organization advocating English as the official language of government in the U.S.[11] [12]
On June 28, 2007, NumbersUSA claimed a victory after a sweeping immigration bill collapsed in the U.S. Senate. The organization's members used information and tools from NumbersUSA to contact legislators and voice opposition.[5]
A new website is ChangeTheNumbers, which features animations and a graph showing the impact of various immigration levels.
Policies
NumbersUSA's policy positions and statements indicate that it is "pro-immigrant" and favors annual immigration of 200,000. On the group's Web site, Beck cautions against 'immigrant bashing' and says, 'Even illegal aliens deserve humane treatment as they are detected, detained and deported.'"[5]
Controversy
In February of 2009, NumbersUSA was called a nativist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center's report "The Nativist Lobby"[13] - though the SPLC also conceded that there is no evidence of racism on behalf of Roy Beck or his organization.[14] NumbersUSA firmly denies having any racist or extremist views.[15]
References
- ^ Pear, Robert (2007-07-15). "Little-Known Group Claims a Win on Immigration". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/us/politics/15immig.html. Retrieved 2008-08-22. "Numbers USA is one of many organizations fostered by John H. Tanton, an ophthalmologist from Michigan who has also championed efforts to protect the environment, limit population growth and promote English as an official language."
- ^ "NumbersUSA staff comment to News21 description (See Comment below the entry". http://news21blog.org/2008/09/03/immigration-organization-of-the-week-numbersusa/. Retrieved 2009-04-10. "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. ... 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."
- ^ a b c "NumbersUSA Form 990" (pdf). NumbersUSA. 2007-09-30. http://www.numbersusa.org/forms/irs_form_990.pdf. Retrieved 2009-04-10.
- ^ Gaouette, Nicole (2008-06-23). "An immigration end run around the next president". Los Angeles Times. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-immig23-2008jun23,0,6052440.story. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
- ^ a b c Pear, Robert (2007-07-15). "Little-Known Group Claims a Win on Immigration". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/15/us/politics/15immig.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
- ^ "Roy Beck", Joseph A D'Agostino. Human Events. Washington: Aug 25, 2003. Vol. 59, Iss. 29; pg. 16
- ^ SPLC's overview of John Tanton's Fundraising Network
- ^ "Borderline Republicans", Wall Street Journal.New York, N.Y.: Jun 17, 2004.
- ^ Whois lookup for betterimmigration.com
- ^ "Activist calls amnesty a 'slap in the face' to blacks" Lesley Clark. Knight Ridder Tribune News Service. Washington: Apr 27, 2007. pg. 1
- ^ Address of NumbersUSA
- ^ Address of ProEnglish
- ^ http://www.splcenter.org/intel/nativist_lobby.jsp
- ^ http://www.splcenter.org/intel/nativist_numbersusa.jsp
- ^ http://theboard.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/the-nativist-lobby/
External links
- NumbersUSA official site
- Americans for Better Immigration
- Change the Numbers
- Right Web Profile of NumbersUSA
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