Conservative activist Mark Krikorian spoke in support of restrictive immigration policies at a talk hosted by Northwestern’s chapter of Young Americans for Freedom at Norris University Center Thursday.
About 50 people attended the free and public event, with security guards and armed police officers checking identification and bags beforehand and stationing themselves both inside and outside the room.
In a conversation with political science Prof. William Reno, followed by a Q&A with audience members, Krikorian broke down how his view of restrictionism divides conservatives.
Throughout his remarks, Krikorian criticized what he called the “standard Republican politician response” of depicting legal immigration as positive and illegal immigration as negative, arguing instead for an overall reduction in immigration.
Several hours before the event, the NU College Democrats released a statement on Instagram condemning the choice to host Krikorian and criticizing a comment he made 15 years ago, in which he claimed Haiti is “so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough.”
Krikorian is the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank with the motto “low-immigration, pro-immigrant,” and independently researches the consequences of American immigration.
The NU College Democrats’ post rejected Krikorian’s claims that immigration harms America’s economy and culture, and it noted that the Southern Poverty Law Center designates the Center for Immigration Studies as a hate group.
As Weinberg senior, Daily opinion contributor and NU YAF chair Caleb Nunes introduced Krikorian, he questioned the motive behind the post. He said YAF members “do not care” and “no one asked” for the group’s opinion.
Krikorian framed the immigration debate as societal, claiming that assimilating immigrants and restricting further immigration to the U.S. would benefit Americans.
“In the long run, the question is, are we handing our children a sustainable and coherent political system that will be healthy and have continuity?” Krikorian said. “Under modern circumstances, too much immigration makes that a real challenge.”
For Krikorian, immigration should be treated as a system of choosing American citizens instead of importing workers.
He argued that importing workers from other countries opened up a “master-servant” relationship, using derogatory language — like referring to immigrants who work in landscaping as “little brown people” who mow lawns — that some attendees called into question.
“He characterized some on the left as seeing restrictions on immigration as modern Jim Crow. I thought that was an insane thing to say,” Weinberg sophomore Owen Rucins said.
Krikorian said that in the current political climate, he feels the right is increasingly welcoming of his restrictionist ideology. He said that 15% of his staff from the CIS has left to work for President Donald Trump’s current administration.
While he called Trump’s recent $100,000 H-1B visa entry fee policy ineffective, he praised Trump’s management of visas and work permits for immigrants.
“Holy moly, they are getting serious about their job,” Krikorian said. “It was always, ‘Well, the immigrants are our customers and we need to move things along as quickly as possible,’ and the current guy, who is a friend of ours — Joe Edlow (director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) — is like, ‘No. Here’s the rules.’”
Attendees from across the political spectrum lined up to ask Krikorian questions during the Q&A portion of the evening.
Despite their political differences, Nunes said he appreciated the questions from attendees who disagreed with Krikorian.
“I was actually very grateful that they asked the questions,” Nunes said. “I think that what that speaks to is the fact that we are very willing as an organization to invite people to disagree because we learn when they disagree.”
NU College Democrats co-President Adam Durr agreed that having a diversity of perspectives is important.
However, he said legitimizing what he believes to be invalid arguments is not productive. Durr specifically called Krikorian’s argument that immigration harms American society incoherent.
“It is very important to discuss controversial ideals,” Durr said. “At the same time, discuss them without inflating their legitimacy or giving a cover of acceptability to people who have said some very troubling things in the past.”
Rucins said that while he disagreed with many of Krikorian’s arguments and believed Krikorian didn’t back them with sufficient evidence, he thought the event illustrated the essence of the First Amendment.
“This is what this country is built on,” Rucins said. “It’s free expression, open dialogue, it’s conversation between people who don’t necessarily agree, and this was a great example of that.”
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