Update: Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies has some insiteful comments about MPI’s 287g report at National Review On Line, here. Hat tip: Judy.
Yesterday two people sent me the latest “study” from the benign-looking Migration Policy Institute. The press release on the report is entitled, “ICE’s 287(g) Immigration Enforcement Program Is Not Targeted Primarily at Serious Offenders, New MPI Study Finds,” and attempts to show that some jurisdictions involved in the 287g program (that is the federal program which authorizes local law enforcement to apprehend illegal aliens) are stopping illegals for petty crimes and traffic violations and thus in their view abusing the law. It is a study that looks balanced, but in fact advances a political agenda.
The Migration Policy Institute (MPI) does just that—it advances an open-borders agenda (as well as advocates for more legal immigration—more refugees and more asylees).
I had never really looked more deeply into the organization, but did just now because this report irritated me so much—not what it says, but that over and over again we are led to believe there is no agenda behind supposedly objective studies like this one and gullible readers, especially reporters, take this stuff as the unvarnished truth.
In 30 minutes I found some of the following information:
The first thing I always check is a group’s Form 990 (virtually all of these pro-migration advocacy groups are non-profits and are required to file a Form 990, some do so in a more timely fashion than others). Here is the most recent Form 990 for MPI–2008. There is no reason they shouldn’t have 2009 available.
The most interesting thing to me is that their income went from just over $4 million in the prior year and then jumped to a whopping $9.6 million in the next year. Could it be that with Obama’s election they were gearing up to push amnesty through Congress?
Unfortunately other than the government portion of their funding which is $443,000, one is not given access to their funders. I don’t care what end of the political spectrum a group is on, but its major funders should be identified on their public Form 990—a good project for an enterprising Tea Party oriented Congressman!
Like so many of these Washington groups ostensibly helping the world’s poor and downtrodden, one of the biggest portions of their expenses is for all the 6-figure salaries paid to employees. Examining the Form 990, one sees that one of those receiving six-figures from MPI is Doris Meissner. I told you about her here recently as she was quoted supporting the “free market idea” of human trafficking and smuggling Somalis across our border:
Doris Meissner, former commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said applicants can wait in camps for years with no assurance they’ll get into the country of their choice.
“Sometimes they decide that smuggling is the best shot,” said Meissner, now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington. [You see what I mean about reporters, they eat this up, “nonpartisan think tank” my foot—-ed]
When I scrolled down that Form 990 all I had to see was a $50,000 grant MPI gave to the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition that year to know who they were. That is a very far Left, highly political, open borders and pro-migration and pro-Muslim immigration advocacy group we have written about on many occasions.
And, interestingly, I didn’t know that MPI was actually mentioned in an article about the hotel in Nashville that canceled a meeting I attended in May 2009. After the Lowe’s Vanderbilt hotel canceled a conference days before it opened, we all went to another “welcoming” hotel and proceeded to have a good meeting. Here is ACT for America’s account of what happened. Here is Judy’s post.
So, just by giving TIRRC a $50,000 grant I knew there was nothing nonpartisan and balanced about MPI. Just one more of George Soros money laundering outfits?
When you can’t figure out who exactly is funding an organization one can search by just googling some of the likely candidates. For example, I typed in Migration Policy Institute and the Tides Foundation or Tides Center (the hard Left’s premier money laundering operation), MPI and George Soros, and then Discover the Networks is also a really good first option.
Below are some links to give you a better idea of who MPI is:
Discover the Networks, here.
MPI and George Soros here ( here is the source for that story). Soros operation is called the “shadow party.”
Working with the big money government contractor, International Rescue Committee, here for a PR campaign for more tax dollars going to Iraqi refugees (actually it won’t go directly to the refugees it will pass through the contractors so the head of the IRC can make his $400,000 plus salary).
I told you about this meeting hosted by MPI (here) where “experts” admitted that black men are hurt the most when immigrant numbers are high, but that doesn’t matter to the elite and highly educated at MPI.
Wikipedia reports that MPI gets funding from international interests through the United Nations, here. Heck, you can see all their international funders at their website, here.
And, to really see what grassroots immigration control groups are up against, see UNBOUND PHILANTHROPY, here.
O.K. so this is taking me more than a half hour—UNBOUND has a boatload of information on its Form 990! Will have to write a separate post! [Update: Here is my post on Unbound Philanthropy.]
Bottomline, MPI is not an unbiased, nonpartisan, independent think tank. It is an open borders advocate and a pro-migration organization. So please read any “study” or report that they release as propaganda to advance their agenda.