doris meissner

Doris Meissner

Former Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) during the Bill Clinton administration. Now a senior fellow at the Migration Policy Institute and an occasional quote source for reporters. Not a strong supporter of immigration enforcement or of citizens who support such enforcement. An opponent of the border fence.

Last modified Dec 16, 2008
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

MPI claims immigration enforcement costs more than FBI, DEA, etc. - 01/07/13

[UPDATE: see the questions for those using the study]

Dozens of pro-illegal immigration groups were invited to Obama's mini-amnesty rollout and you weren't - 08/25/11

On August 18, Barack Obama's Department of Homeland Security announced an administrative amnesty that could cover 300,000 or more illegal aliens.

Meissner wants your immigration questions (Monday, May 3, 2010, 11 AM Eastern) - 05/02/10

Here's an assignment: submit immigration questions for Doris Meissner, formerly INS commissioner and now with the Migration Policy Institute. She'll be answering questions in a live chat tomorrow, Monday May 3, 2010 at 11 Eastern.

Doris Meissner misleads, downplays border security's role in terrorism, uses bogus talking points - 05/02/10

Doris Meissner - former INS commissioner and now working for the Migration Policy Institute - takes to the pages of the Washington Post to offer "5 Myths about immigration" (link).

4/30/09: Chuck Schumer holding immigration "reform" hearing (Alan Greenspan, Joel Hunter, Doris Meissner) - 04/28/09

On April 30, Chuck Schumer and the Senate Judiciary Committee/Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Citizenship will be holding a hearing called "Comprehensive Immigration Reform in 2009, Can We Do It and How?" (judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/hearing.cfm?id=3793) It would be a tough debate about the issue if not for the fact that all five witnesses are on the same basic side: * Alan Greenspan

Rahm Emanuel helped legalize criminal immigrants to get Bill Clinton voters - 12/16/08

From this: A former INS official who attended meetings with Rahm Emanuel when Emanuel was a White House aide says the hard-charging Democrat relaxed rules to naturalize even criminal immigrants and secure their votes for President Clinton ahead of the 1996 presidential election. ...Emanuel coordinated with Hispanic community organizers in Chicago to rubberstamp immigrants for citizenship, the INS official said in an exclusive interview with WND... The program in question was Citizenship USA, run out of Al Gore's office and involving former INS Commissioner Doris Meissner. One of the...

Federal, state investigations of Agriprocessors (maybe the left will stop playing games) - 07/11/08

Neither Alternet nor New America Media are reputable sources, but, for what it's worth, Wendy Feliz Sefsaf of NAM offers "Meat-Packing Giant Raided by ICE Faces Criminal Investigation" (alternet.org/immigration/91182). Discussing the Agriprocessors raid from May, she says: No fewer than seven federal and state agencies are coordinating on investigations of Agriprocessors. The Iowa Division of Labor Services, the U.S. Department of Labor, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Equal Employment and Opportunities Commission (EEOC), the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA),...

Jason DeParle/NYT gives full page ad to Migration Policy Institute - 02/04/08

Jason DeParle of the New York Times gives a "big warm hug" to the Migration Policy Institute and their online journal Migration Information Source (migrationinformation.org) in "A Tiny Staff, Tracking People Across the Globe". It's essentially an ad not just for that group but also an ad in support of migration and globalism in general. It also falls into the "little 'nonpartisan' organization that could" category, in the same sense that the ACLU is "nonpartisan". The MPI would have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for an ad of the same length, yet they apparently got this for free. The...

Less than 100 supervisors arrested on immigration charges in 2007 (+Spencer Hsu's pro-Dem spin) - 12/26/07

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post offers "Immigrant Crackdown Falls Short/Despite Tough Rhetoric, Few Employers of Illegal Workers Face Criminal Charges". While we should be thankful for that news, he also offers some pro-Democratic Party spin. Despite Bush administration blather (Michael Chertoff: "The days of treating employers who violate these laws by giving them the equivalent of a corporate parking ticket -- those days are gone. It's now felonies, jail time, fines and forfeitures."): Fewer than 100 owners, supervisors or hiring officials were arrested in fiscal 2007, compared with...

Secret Bush plan to deal with Bush/Rove "import Democrats" plan? (citizenship backlog) - 11/21/07

Mark Kleiman - someone who is shockingly a UCLA professor - writes [1]: The Bush Administration plans to steal hundreds of thousands of votes, most of them Democratic votes, in the 2008 elections by the simple expedient of sitting on new citizenship applications until after the elections. He links to his site, which mostly just links to the WaPo article "Immigrant Paperwork Backs Up At DHS" (li

James Pinkerton, Mark Potok, Doris Meissner oppose citizen action against illegal immigration - 11/05/07

James Pinkerton of the Houston Chronicle offers "Taking border battle to the streets" about a local group (U.S. Border Watch) that protests in front of day laborer sites. While it's not as bad as other similar articles, he takes his lead from LBJ: he doesn't call them racists, he just makes them deny it. [see the update] Far from the halls of Congress and the front lines of the Southwest border, the divisive immigration debate is being played out in local neighborhoods, including the Houston area. A number of groups have upped the ante by moving from debate to confrontation, attempting to...

Mexican citizens helping Kennedy, McCain, Flake, Berman set immigration policy - 01/16/07

In September of last year, the "Independent Task Force on Immigration and America's Future" - "convened by the Migration Policy Institute in partnership with Manhattan Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars" - released their report called "Immigration and America's Future: A New Chapter". Two members of the "task force" are former elected officials (Spencer Abraham and Lee Hamilton), but four of them are currently supposedly working for us: Howard Berman, Jeff Flake, Edward Kennedy, and John McCain. Another member is Fernando Garcia, executive director of the El...

Independent Task Force on Immigration - 01/15/07

A group convened by the Migration Policy Institute in partnership with Manhattan Institute and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars which published "Immigration and America's Future:A New Chapter" ( link) in [[September, 2006]]. Supports a "new, secure Social Security card" (possibly a national ID card) and "path to legal status for unauthorized immigrants" (a massive amnesty for illegal aliens). As of creation time, this is the list of those involved:

El Paso Times BNHR article - 01/15/07

"D.C. hears El Pasoan's ideas about reforms" January 15, 2007 by Louie GilotEl Paso Times elpasotimes.com/election/ci_5016999

Will Rod Blagojevich pro-illegal immigration scheme violate law? - 12/13/06

In November 2005, Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich - a very strong supporter of illegal immigration - created the "New Americans Immigrant Policy Council" (press release link) to come up with ways to deal with immigrants in his state. The report from the NAIPC has been released, as has a report from a similar panel. Blago has endorsed their findings, but has not committed any money. And, whether any money will be found is still to be determined. As even the WaPo discloses ("Ill. Governor To Announce New Benefits For Immigrants" by Kari Lydersen), these benefits would be for both legal and...

Immigration: What's next? - 10/07/06

Kristin Markway/Medill News Service(in the NWITimes)/[[October 1, 2006]]/ link Immigration experts from across the nation met Wednesday ([[September 27, 2006]]) in Chicago and praised Illinois as one of the "most progressive" states for immigration policies. However, they said, there are serious problems with other state and national immigration laws.

Tim Gaynor/Reuters, "experts", say fence is "impractical" - 10/03/06

Tim Gaynor of Reuters offers "Experts see U.S. border fence plan as impractical". Three such "experts" are quoted, only two of them being named. The first is "veteran agent Lee Morgan".

"US Task Force Urges Sweeping Immigration Reform" - 09/21/06

Curious: The Independent Task Force on Immigration argues that America's immigration system is dysfunctional to the growing detriment of the nation. Task force co-chairman Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic U.S. congressman from Indiana ["who also served as vice chairman of the U.S.

Secret NAU meeting in Canada - 09/20/06

From this: ...from Sept. 12 to 14, in Banff Springs, [Canadian] Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day and [Canadian] Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor met with U.S. and Mexican government officials and business leaders to discuss North American integration at the second North American Forum. According to leaked documents, the guest list included such prominent figures as U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Mexican Secretary of Public Security Eduardo Medina Mora and Canadian Forces chief General Rick Hillier, although we have no final confirmation of attendees. The event was chaired...

The losing battle to deport criminal aliens - 09/19/04

The AP has an article about the attempts to catch "the nearly half-million immigrants who have ducked deportation orders or are targets for removal because they were convicted of a crime." The article is by Elliot Spagat and Laura Wides: "Drive to deport illegal fugitives 'a losing battle'" [1]: Even as the government pours millions into enforcement, each year the number of new fugitives far exceeds the number of immigrants removed...