Mark Krikorian has been the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a key organization in the anti-immigration network created by racist John Tanton, since 1995.[1] When he was hired, Krikorian was already known to officials in that network because he had worked for about a year, starting in 1988, at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, Tanton’s best-known organization. Although Krikorian and his parents were all born in the United States, his grandparents were Armenian immigrants, and he was raised speaking only Armenian until he went to school. Remarkably, then, he has said that anger at a growing movement for bilingual education was a primary reason that he became the ardent immigration restrictionist he is today.[2] Krikorian is the author of three books: The New Case Against Immigration, Both Legal and Illegal (2008), How Obama is Transforming America Through Immigration (2010), and Open Immigration: Yea and Nay (2014), with Alex Nowrasteh.
Described by The Washington Post as “one of the chief intellectual architects of the movement to slow immigration to a trickle,” Krikorian is probably best known for his coining, in a 2005 paper, of the phrase “attrition through enforcement” — the idea, adopted by many on the political right, that unforgiving enforcement of all applicable laws will cause undocumented immigrants to “self-deport.”[3] He is also an avowed enemy of multiculturalism, which he sees as promoting various ethnic chauvinisms at the expense of undiluted Americanism. And despite the Center for Immigration Studies’ claim to be “an independent, non-partisan research organization,” Krikorian has aimed the vast majority of his vociferous criticisms involving immigration at the Democratic Party and the political left. He is a regular contributor to the conservative National Review and writes frequently for other publications as well.
Here are a few of Krikorian’s more attention-getting remarks over the years:
“Why not Guantanamo? It’s a big place.”
—2019 tweet suggesting that unaccompanied immigrant children be held at the same American naval base in Cuba where foreign terrorists and enemy combatants are imprisoned. When other tweeters expressed shock at the suggestion, Krikorian clarified that he was “[n]ot joking at all”[4]
“[T]he illegal-alien marchers are morally identical to burglars demanding that the homeowner rearrange the furniture.”
—2006 National Review essay decrying immigrant rights marches around the country that May 1[5]
“Well, I’m afraid that in the Islamic world democracy faces the problem of a vicious people, one where the desire for freedom is indeed written in every human heart, but the freedom to do evil.”
—2011 article in the National Review Online[6]
“Obama’s Justice Dept has been doing everything in its power for 7.5 years to foment race war. Happy now?”
—2016 tweet[7]
“The diminution of sovereignty [of individual nations with regard to immigration rules] engineered by the EU [European Union] is bad enough for some share of the population, but many more will object to extinguishing their national existence a la Camp of the Saints.”
—2015 comment referencing a violently racist book that depicts an invasion of France by immigrants from India who go on to subjugate the country and send white women to whorehouses for Hindu men[8]
“My guess is that Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.”
—2010 article following the devastating earthquake in Haiti that year (emphasis in original)[9]
“To be blunt, a lot of employers would rather not deal with black American workers if they have the option of hiring a docile Hispanic immigrant instead. … [Immigrants] are not going to demand better wages, and they’re not going to ask for time off. And frankly, a lot of bosses are thinking, ‘I don’t want to deal with a young black male.’”
—2019 interview with the Dallas Morning News suggesting that halting Latino immigration would ameliorate anti-black job discrimination in America[10]
“It’s kind of melodramatic, but the future of the republic rests on him.”
—2013 interview with Right Wing News referencing House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and pending comprehensive immigration reform legislation[11]
“A lot of these sanctuary cities are also places, apart from immigration, that just allow panhandling and drug use on the street… . And the immigration thing is almost part of these liberal jurisdictions not wanting to impose rules on anybody and you end up with, you know, naked panhandling illegal aliens in the street.”
—2017 interview arguing that liberal cities that decline to participate in immigration law enforcement are creating lawless communities characterized by grotesque antisocial activities[12]
“The political incentive to actually enforce the rules is very weak here because left-wing groups, ethnic chauvinist groups, and big business all work together to prevent the enforcement of immigration laws.”
—2013 Tea Party Unity conference call[13]
“Hispanics as a whole are the biggest supporters of Obamacare, are big supporters of gun control, are opposed to reducing the size of government. Native-born Hispanic Americans, who make up most Hispanic voters, have a majority of the children that are born to them [who] are illegitimate, very high rates of welfare use. So this is a description of an overwhelmingly Democratic voter group. … [S]o the idea of importing more of them as a solution to the Republican Party’s problems is kind of silly.”
—2013 radio interview suggesting Republicans have no stake in immigration reform[14]
“Cause and Effect?”
—2008 comment posted at National Review Online, along with an old press release touting the inclusion of Washington Mutual Bank on Hispanic Business’ list of “Business Diversity Elites,” just after the bank failed. Krikorian was unsubtly suggesting that the hiring of Latinos had caused the bank’s collapse[15]
