Steven Camarota

Director of Research, Center for Immigration Studies

See Lobbying, Litigation, & Policy Leadership
Steven Camarota

Connections

Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) Mark Krikorian Jessica Vaughan Andrew Arthur Rosemary Jenks John Miano Stephen Miller Jon Feere Ronald Mortensen Tom Cotton National Review

CIS’s longtime director of research produces dozens of reports each year that are routinely cited by anti-immigrant politicians and Trump officials alike. Like his colleagues, Camarota has a history of demonizing immigrants. Camarota helps to craft policy proposals for the group which, according to reporting by Univision, had a hand in drafting the RAISE Act, co-authored by Senator Tom Cotton. Camarota was cited by White House policy advisor Stephen Miller as a top expert on immigration policy at a press conference announcing RAISE’s introduction. For years CIS has demanded drastic cuts to legal immigration levels, among other anti-immigrant measures, as a trade for protections for Dreamers.

  • As director of research for CIS, Camarota is responsible for various studies that use dubious sources, manipulate numbers, and distort data to support anti-immigrant policies and positions. Camarota has worked at CIS for approxamately two decades, with staffers such as Rosemary Jenks, Mark Krikorian, Jessica Vaughan, Andrew Arthur, Jon Feere, Ronald Mortensen and John Miano.
  • Camarota’s writing and Congressional testimony has been republished by The Social Contract Press in its journal which was founded in 1990 by John Tanton. The outlet is known for featuring white nationalist writers, and most infamously in 1994 republished an English translation of the openly racist novel The Camp of the Saints.
  • Camarota works for an organization that regularly circulates white nationalist content, and has done so thousands of times. CIS’s executive director has defended circulating content from VDARE, a website that routinely publishes the work of white nationalists and anti-Semities, by comparing it to the New York Times, and counting it as an “important” site for immigration news.
  • Camarota regularly publishes editorials on immigration for National Review, like his colleague, Mark Krikorian.
  • CIS and the group’s staffers such as Camarota have unprecedented influence over the Trump Administration’s immigration policies. In fact, many of their harsh measures can be traced directly back to CIS’s report entitled A Pen and Phone.
  • According to NPR, emails obtained during discovery in the Maryland 2020 Census citizenship question lawsuit revealed that Trump Administration officials suggested CIS staff members Mark Krikorian and Steven Camarota be contacted for advice and support.
  • During a White House press conference on The RAISE Act, President Trump’s Senior Advisor Stephen Miller cited Camarota to justify the measure which if enacted, would cut legal immigration levels by one half.
  • Camarota publicly advocated for President Trump to end DACA, and after the program was rescinded, CIS worked to derail bipartisan negotiations in the U.S. Senate on protections for undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. at a young age.
  • In advocating in August of 2017 for the Trump Administration to end the program, Camarota argued that the program “harms working-class voters,” and subsequently argued that ending DACA would be a boom to native-born residents.

Lobbying, Litigation, & Policy Leadership

Steven Camarota
Dan Stein Mark Krikorian Roy Beck Kris Kobach Jessica Vaughan Andrew Arthur Dale Wilcox Rosemary Jenks John Miano Michael Hethmon Chris Crane

Connections

Steven Camarota
Center for Immigration Studies Mark Krikorian Jessica Vaughan Andrew Arthur Rosemary Jenks John Miano Stephen Miller Jon Feere Ronald Mortensen Tom Cotton National Review