Alex Nowrasteh

On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over the constitutionality of Arizona's controversial immigration law. But jurisprudence aside, the economic verdict is already in: The law has damaged Arizona's economy.

Arizona's immigration law burdens businesses with regulation and penalizes workers. It has driven...

On April Fools' Day Alabama's immigration law (HB 56) mandates E-Verify for all employers. E-Verify is a federally run electronic employment verification system that checks employee identification against government records to weed unauthorized immigrants out of the workforce. E-Verify will hurt Alabaman businesses, Alabaman workers, and...

Today is the anniversary of the passage of America's first immigration and naturalization law, the Naturalization Act of 1790. Passed in the first Congress, it had zero restrictions on immigration. You read that right, the first immigration law passed in the United States, by the Founders themselves, supported...

The allegations surrounding Pinal County, Arizona, Sheriff Paul Babeu and his attorney Chris DeRose are what tabloid writers dream of. It's got it all: a secretive gay affair, potential abuse of power, and a cover-up. The most damning allegation is that DeRose...

Overcoming the costs of the welfare state is the biggest challenge faced by proponents of immigration reform. The perception that immigrants use and abuse the welfare state is prevalent just about anywhere you look. Many voters and politicians believe that immigrants drain the welfare state. So the thinking goes, any...

Last week, I participated in an immigration panel that also included Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. I spoke before Mr. Kobach and laid out a case for why conservatives should support increasing legal immigration. I...

While President Obama's State of the Union address did not focus on immigration, his few statements on that issue sent out conflicting signals. The president pushed for a comprehensive immigration reform plan that includes letting foreign businessmen and entrepreneurs immigrate to the U.S.

It's a great idea,...

People are the most valuable resource. We see this most clearly among entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and innovators. Creating wealth and new ways of doing things drive economic growth. This is especially true in the technology sector. Encouraged by free markets, individual liberty, and the right incentives, innovators can achieve technological...

Portions of Georgia's new anti-immigration law will go into effect on January 1. The law is part of a recent state-level campaign to create restrictive immigration enforcement laws that go beyond federal law. Starting in Arizona in 2007, numerous states have passed anti-immigration laws that have...

With the national spotlight on the Republican Iowa caucuses, a group of prominent Iowans are also entering the immigration fray. On Tuesday they produced the Iowa Compact, a proposal that calls for federal immigration reform that increases legal immigration and refocuses law enforcement on security threats--and away from...

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a stridently anti-immigration organization that wants to substantially decrease legal and unauthorized immigration to the United States. It frequently makes inaccurate claims about immigrants. Its most egregious economic claim is that unauthorized immigrants cost American state, local, and federal governments...

At least two population milestones have been reached in 2011. The most spectacular is that 7 billion people now live in the world. The second, and more meaningful to Americans, is that nearly 40 million immigrants live in the United States today. The increase in our...

Alabama's anti-immigrant law, HB 56, was recently upheld by a federal judge, giving hope to immigration restrictionists in other states. Indeed, Alabama is not alone in passing draconian state-level immigration laws. Other states, including Arizona, Georgia, and South Carolina, are...

On Wednesday, September 21, the House Judiciary Committee voted along party lines to send Rep. Lamar Smith's (R-TX) Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2885) to the House Floor. Now the rest of the House of Representatives will get a chance to debate this monstrosity.

The Legal Workforce...

The biggest misconception about immigration is that it is a zero-sum game--that there is a finite number of jobs which immigrants "take" from the native-born and that immigrants consume social services without paying anything in. Several state governments--including Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina,...

America's immigration system is broken. Years of overregulation aimed at micromanaging the system has produced nearly 100 different types of visas, each with its own complex rules, regulations, and requirements. These rules and regulations hold back American economic growth by discouraging the hardworking and entrepreneurial to come to...