NumbersUSA Action
- jessicadawnruiz
- Jun 25, 2015
- 5 min read
Jessica Ruiz-Jones
POLS-101-07
4/11/14
Our country is one that was founded on immigration. Aside from the Native Americans who originally populated the land, all of our ancestors originated from other countries. Unfortunately, today we are faced with the problem of a significant increase in the number of immigrants seeking citizenship in the United States. While there are groups that focus on the problems stemming from illegal immigration, there is one dedicated to choosing the right number of legal immigrants for the future. NumbersUSA Action is a special interest group based in the Washington D.C. area and Arlington, Virginia, and it is their mission to, “educate opinion leaders, policymakers and the public on immigration legislation, policies and their consequences” (NumbersUSA).
The United States is a great country, and thousands of people around the world have the desire to become citizens in attempt to increase their quality of life. However, the number of people immigrating must be controlled. Failure to regulate these numbers can result in economic instability, and the very dreams immigrants wish to achieve can be seriously hindered when too many are granted citizenship at once. It is the goal of NumbersUSA Action not to discourage immigration, but rather to ensure the number of immigrants allowed in the country will not overwhelm the current sustainability of resources and allocated productivity. Supply and demand is a basic concept. For example, if the current job market was in demand of engineers and we were overwhelmed with a large influx of manual laborers, the competition amongst the less-skilled immigrants would raise and impact everyone of their equivalent status.
NumbersUSA Action is a credible organization, and it has the backing of a number of established watchdog groups including Guide Star, Charity Navigator, Combined Federal Campaign, and Independent Charities of America. Founded and led by the group’s President and CEO Roy Beck, the organization is funded by individual donations of $10, $25, and $100 that are made online. Beck states that the organization "doesn’t get a penny from any foundation or the government.” Their standards of accountability meet the requirements of the Better Business Bureau, and independent audits are performed to ensure the organization operates ethically (NumbersUSA).
Author and lecturer Roy Beck has long been an advocate on the quality of life of the citizens of the United States, and he has been named one of the five leading thinkers in the national immigration debate by The Houston Chronicle. (NumbersUSA). Before founding NumbersUSA Action, Beck spent 30 years as a journalist for the Booth Newspapers chain. He received national attention with his article published in the Atlantic Monthly entitled "The Ordeal of Immigration in Wausau.” It pressured senators to re-evaluate current immigration policies to better regulate the number of immigrants allowed citizenship annually to ensure the best lifestyle for the country's overall population (Wikipedia Roy). In 1997, he established NumbersUSA Action to help raise awareness and persuade lawmakers to make efforts to correct the problems that large numbers of immigrants causes.
There are many issues that NumbersUSA Action addresses. For starters, chain migration is a loophole many immigrants are taking advantage of. This means that immigrant citizens and legal residents are allowed to bring their extended, non-nuclear family members to live in the country (Immigration). While the group understands that family unity is important and families should not be separated, they disagree with the fact that legal immigrants are also able to bring along brothers, sisters, parents, and adult children. They feel that if the immigrant wants to be near these family members, they should remain where they are.
Birthright citizenship is another concept that the members of NumbersUSA Action want to spread awareness of. Under current legislation, any child born on United States soil is given automatic citizenship. This is the same legislation that allows children of United States citizens born abroad to be granted such status. Most concur with the latter, but there is controversy regarding children born of illegal immigrants in the United States. While most nations that allow birthright citizenship do so to increase their population, the United States is a developed country, and most others have either dropped birthright citizenship or never instituted it to begin with. NumbersUSA members believe that children born of illegal immigrants should not receive such status. They feel this should be granted only to children with at least one parent who is a legal citizen. Partially due to the influence of the group, Democrats and Republicans have suggested legislation in recent years that would take a deeper look into the Citizenship Clause of 1993 to narrow the availability of birthright citizenship opportunities (Center).
The Visa Lottery is another concept that the members of NumbersUSA are challenging in their agenda. Also known as the Green Card Lottery, names are randomly drawn among counties with historically low immigration rates to the United States. Section 203(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) was mandated by Congress to allow the process to increase the country's diversity (Visa). While the attempt may seem to be a reasonable one, it must be considered that these immigrants are chosen purely by chance, and security issues such as terrorism, espionage, and criminal refuge are inevitable consequences of such a system. NumbersUSA Action supports its elimination.
It may seem that NumbersUSA Action is opposed to immigration in general, but that is not the case. They understand the importance of the allowance of those with the desire to better their living conditions to be given the opportunity to do so, just as our own ancestors did. However, they believe that more could be done to filter the large number of those coming to the United States as simultaneous, large immigrant arrivals put a strain on both the economy and social stability of those who are already legal citizens.
In January 2013, an immigration reform agenda was introduced by a group of bipartisan senators, and it would allow a large number of current, illegal immigrants to gain legal status (Huff). NumbersUSA Action was opposed, and they play a large part in the current anti-immigration reform movement that followed as they are making efforts to kill the proposed legislation. They received a large donation of more than $17 million to aid in the navigation of their efforts. Beck reports that they have a goal to gather 1.8 million activists to help in the defeating the bill (Numbers).
Since its inception, NumbersUSA has grown substantially. From 50,000 members reported in 2004, the group now boasts a membership of over 1.1 million member activists (Wikipedia NumbersUSA). Members are allowed the opportunity to get involved in movements to help decrease the number of immigrants allowed citizenship in the United States on an annual basis. They have the united stance that, while immigration in itself is necessary to balance the diversity in the country, it is a process that must be more closely managed and regulated to ensure the best way of life for every current legal resident.
Works Cited
NumbersUSA. “About Us.” Roy Beck. https://www.numbersusa.com/about.
Wikipedia. “Roy Beck.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Beck.
Immigration Issues. “What is Chain Migration?” Don Moffett. 20 May 2013. http://immigration.about.com/…/f/What-Is-
Chain-Migration.htm.
Center for Immigration Studies. “Birthright Citizenship in the United States: A Global Comparison.” Jon Freere. August
2010. https://cis.org/birthright-citizenship.
Visa Lottery: Gateway to the U.S.A. “Diversity Visa Lottery (Green Card Lottery). http://www.visalottery.com/
Huff Post Politics. “Immigration Reform Framework Includes Citizenship, Drones, Dreamers. 28 January 2013.
Wikipedia. “NumbersUSA.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NumbersUSA.
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