A new organization in the nation’s capital, Black America for Immigration Reform, is making big waves in the political arena by focusing on immigration policy.
The founder, William W. Chip, has a history of posting racially overtone messages on the website even though the name sounds progressive. Many organizations have voiced their disapproval of the organization because of its stated mission to reduce immigration. William W. Chip (cis.org)
Mr. Chip was quoted in Rolling Stone as saying Black men who have a hard time finding employment “may leave their wives” because they can’t find a job. “And there’s a lot of good research out there about that, but it’s not getting the attention it needs in part because anytime you come out and suggest to limit immigration the first thing the ‘woke left’ does is accuse you of being a white nationalist,” Chip explained.
Chip is the sole individual working for the new organization; he was previously Donald Trump’s senior counselor at DHS. Chip has worked as a tax attorney and written for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for stricter immigration policies, and he now thinks that greater immigration could harm Black Americans.
According to Politico, the first media outlet to report on the new organization. Some people saw its formation as an effort to convince more people that immigration harms Black labor and that the federal government should limit immigration.
Some worry that the organization is a smokescreen attempting to derail immigration policy reform efforts. Chip stated that he created the organization at the request of T. Willard Fair, Miami’s Urban League President, and Frank Morris, two Black board members at the Center for Immigration Studies. He insisted that he wouldn’t join the board but instead collaborate with Mr. Fair and Morris, plus three others.
According to Georgetown University labor economist and former Clinton administration Department of Labor top economist Harry Holzer, Politico also reported Holzer said the issue related to the job market for Blacks and immigrants is cloudy. Although he conceded that some groups, especially Black employees in some sectors of the economy, do bear a modest cost, he claimed that most economists believe immigrants are beneficial to the labor market as a whole and have minimal influence on less-educated, native-born workers.
Chip blasted the media and left-leaning organizations who often label people like himself who support studies suggesting there should be less immigration as “white racists.” He thinks they can overcome this by establishing themselves as a legitimate African-American organization with prominent Black members serving on the board.
Mr. Fair has indicated that fears over immigration’s impact on Black communities inspired the formation of the organization.
Politico reported that Fair has been vocal about this subject for decades. “Having experienced the Haitians coming here, I knew if it was not controlled how it could impact negatively the progress of my constituents, who happen to be Black Miamians,” he said.
Immigration Policy Coalition
Then Chip proposed resumption of responding to developments at the southern border and how they will affect us in the future. Therefore, he proposed, “Let’s form a coalition.”
Mr. Chip’s group is in line with Numbers USA, the Federation for American Immigration, and the Institute for Sound Public Policy (previously known as Project for Immigration Reform, according to Politico.
These groups earnestly believe that immigration hurts Black labor and hence support measures to limit immigration.
The organization will seek 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and develop a website even though it is only just getting started. Chip’s team won’t be lobbying at first. Nonetheless, the report intends to highlight research showing that low-skilled immigrant employees compete for jobs with native-born low-skilled workers.
They intend to use this as justification for restricting legal immigration and otherwise enforcing more stringent immigration policy rules. Politico pointed out the complexities of the debate over immigration’s impact on the labor market. Economists are nearly unanimous in their belief that immigration benefits the economy as a whole and has few negative consequences for low-skilled native-born employees. (other than crime)
Meanwhile, in a letter to congressional leaders, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) and a wide coalition of public policy groups and former high-level national security personnel have requested that H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, be included in any agreement to keep the federal government running past September 30.
Immigrants Stay in Texas
After canceling the extremely successful Remain in Mexico policy of the outgoing administration on his first day in office, President Joe Biden is reportedly exploring a plan that would require certain migrant families to remain in Texas while awaiting asylum hearings.
The plan is to quickly deport ineligible families and discourage others from crossing the border by restricting the affected migrant’s ability to travel within the United States. The administration’s ineffective “Family Expedited Removal Management” (FERM) program is a prime example of how the stay-in-Texas plan is nothing but smoke and mirrors.
During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, there was a brief attempt to restrict asylum-seeker freedom of movement. However, the number of people migrating was considerably lower and easier to govern back then. More than 91,000 migrants, most of them with their families, crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in August, according to the Washington Post.
“Clearly this is a politically motivated tactic to stop the backlash from places like New York City and Chicago,” Chris Russo, president of Texans for Strong Borders, told FAIR in an interview this week. “By law, the federal government is supposed to detain [illegal aliens]. Obviously, they’re not going to stay in Texas.”
Will ‘Black America for Immigration Reform’ Turn Immigrants Against Blacks?
Black employees in several different fields may incur less expenditures, however, this is acknowledged. Some people say the issue is bigger than the economics.
They claim that a calculated political strategy is at work, pitting immigrants against Black Americans. Given his extreme conservatism, many people continue to distrust Chip. “While writing about immigration for the Center for Immigration Studies for nearly two decades, Chip did not hide his views on race,” Politico wrote.
“During 2021, he posted a series of inflammatory posts on Twitter, now known as X, including a tweet that questioned whether Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis officer who killed George Floyd, was racially motivated.” In still another, he addresses Native American apprehensions regarding the European colonization of the Americas.
If some white people are worried about becoming a minority and being at the mercy of other ethnic groups, that’s not unique; many people of other groups have felt the same way in the past. Chip, when asked to clarify the tweet, remarked, “The Native Americans felt that way.”
Reporter C.J. Walker can be reached at [email protected]
