CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES
Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) was founded in 1985 as a project directly
under the control of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The
Washington, D.C.-based think tank portrays itself as a mainstream organization that
studies the impact of immigration in the United States.
More accurately, CIS is part of the John Tanton Network, a web of controversial
anti-immigrant organizations orchestrated by John Tanton, the founder of the
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). An oral history by John Tanton
describes how CIS came to be:
“... (W)e were running our publication and research efforts out of FAIR. It seemed
that ...outsiders might see these publications as just serving the interests of the
organization, rather than fairly assessing the issues. So it was decided that we should
set up an independent and more academic effort that would be removed from the daily
fray...I wrote the first description of such an organization and listed fifteen or twenty
projects that it could undertake. But there was a dispute on the FAIR board, not so
much about whether this was needed, but about whether we could afford it. Where
was the money going to come from? But we nevertheless did find some money. We
actually donated several of our board members and donors to the Center for
Immigration Studies, as it was called...CIS has gone on to be quite successful, and is
completely independent of FAIR."
With a network populated by individuals with ties to political extremists, including
white nationalists, CIS was created to establish credibility for FAIR. Tanton himself
described the objective of CIS as an attempt “(t)o expand our fund-raising machine...
We need to get CIS fully-funded and entrenched as a major Washington think-tank,
one that can venture into issues which FAIR is not yet ready to raise.” A review of IRS
Forms 990 shows that CIS operated on an income of over $1.4 million in 2007, the latest
year records are available.
However, like Tanton and FAIR, th