Heritage study co-author opposed letting in immigrants with low IQs

The Heritage Foundation made something of a splash with its study suggesting that immigration reform will cost the public trillions. Past work by one of its co-authors helps put that piece in context.

Jason Richwine is relatively new to the think tank world. He received his PhD in public policy from Harvard in 2009, and joined Heritage after a brief stay at the American Enterprise Institute. Richwine’s doctoral dissertation is titled “IQ and Immigration Policy”; the contents are well summarized in the dissertation abstract:

"The statistical construct known as IQ can reliably estimate general mental ability, or intelligence. The average IQ of immigrants in the United States is substantially lower than that of the white native population, and the difference is likely to persist over several generations. The consequences are a lack of socioeconomic assimilation among low-IQ immigrant groups, more underclass behavior, less social trust, and an increase in the proportion of unskilled workers in the American labor market. Selecting high-IQ immigrants would ameliorate these problems in the U.S., while at the same time benefiting smart potential immigrants who lack educational access in their home countries."

Richwine’s dissertation asserts that there are deep-set differentials in intelligence between races. While it’s clear he thinks it is partly due to genetics — “the totality of the evidence suggests a genetic component to group differences in IQ” — he argues the most important thing is that the differences in group IQs are persistent, for whatever reason. He writes, “No one knows whether Hispanics will ever reach IQ parity with whites, but the prediction that new Hispanic immigrants will have low-IQ children and grandchildren is difficult to argue against.”

Toward the end of the thesis, Richwine writes that though he believes racial differences in IQ to be real and persistent

Well, I’m a ma’am rather than a sir, but be that as it may, illegal immigration opened my eyes as to what is wrong with this country. I came from a family and ethnic group of Democrats, living in Massachusetts in a sea of Democrats, so I began voting Democrat. But I noticed that the Democrats didn’t just lie, they told whoppers and in the 1970s they began becoming a radical party going toward abortion and the gay agenda. So, I drifted away from the party and began to become attracted to the Republican Party. I liked Ronald Reagan and I believed that if only we could get a Republican president, senate and house we would have the political version of the second coming.

I hung on during the Bush I years, then I grit my teeth and bore the Bill Clinton years as well as I could. Then we got George W. and we won the trifecta—”conservative” Republican president, “conservative” house and “conservative” senate. Hallelujah, the Day of the Lord had come, but wait a minute, something strange began to happen. The Republican president had some kind of love affair with illegal aliens, he praised them to the heavens and demeaned honest men and women who went to the border to protect their country. What was that all about?

I already knew something about the illegal alien problem, I had heard Pat Buchanan warning about the “reconquista”. I knew that because I listened to talk radio. Then sometime in the nineties one of the tv networks did a story about Douglas, Arizona and San Diego. It made a deep impression on me because my country was being invaded and even though I lived far from the border it was all the same country. I also felt a strong sympathy for our fellow citizens who were suffering because of this onslaught of illegal aliens.

When I got my first computer, I really began delving into the problem of illegal immigration. All you had to do was type in “illegal immigration” and thousands of pages would appear before your eyes. So I kept reading and reading and the more I read the more I learned that this country is not a free country anymore. It is controlled by people who pull the strings. Illegal immigration is the result of many of the top people in the United States—the so-called *respectable people*. The Democrats want millions of votes, the Chamber of Commerce wants cheap labor and some of the Republicans are in the pockets of the Chamber of Commerce.

The party system that we have had for over 150 years is the cause of this because it is a national network of special interests. It is our version of the Politburo, a deeply entrenched gang of racketeers. It isn’t about one or two corrupt individuals, it is about a corrupt system that hides behind politicians’ smiles and careful poses in front of American flags. Many of these people are nothing but hypocrits as we are finding out. The Democrats have always behaved like common thieves but the Republicans, even though they present a more staid appearance are also in it for the money.

American politics today is all about deception, I can’t say this enough. You have to take a close look at the candidates before you jump to the conclusion that they are the good guys, but I believe that the illegal immigration question is what separates the wheat from the chaff. Anyone who doesn’t understand what is at stake does not belong in office.

Thank you for your excellent response.

It sounds like we’ve travelled down a similar path. I too was raised a Massachusetts Democrat. As you’re aware, it’s nearly impossible to escape that early fate in Massachusetts. As I got older I began to see the obvious flaws and lies in the Democrat agenda. I gravitated away from the party that was deceiving me and destroying my nation, and toward the only other option I knew — the Republican Party.

Soon I saw that the Republicans were also often deceitful and at times traitorous. Now I support select politicians, but neither political party on the whole. Sadly, neither party will allow actual debate on the issues most likley to alter our nation.

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