Heritage Foundation Immigration Study Co-Author Resigns, Accused of "Sloppy Methodology" and Linked to Racist Sentiments

Heritage Foundation president Jim DeMint
(photo: The Washington Post)

The right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation had a plan to hijack the political dialogue over America's most recent, painful iteration of immigration policy. A study was commissioned that essentially was intended to provide a blueprint for restrictive legislation on those without passports, but had a desire to usefully live in the United States. The "experts" who conducted the study would have provided intellectual cover for the foundation's overt political agenda. Adding heat to the Heritage fire was its recent appointment of Tea Party advocate and former US senator Jim DeMint as the think tank's capo.

Jason Richwine
(photo: slate.com)

The report became a disaster for the right-wing. Its co-author, Harvard-trained Jason Richwine, used specious methodology to reach his conclusions. Among them, according to a report in The Washington Post, was the assertion that "the cost of legalizing 11 million undocumented immigrants" would cost the nation over six trillion dollars.

Well, a trillion here or there has never stopped a conservative politician from advancing pointless weapons programs while proposing a tax cut for one percenters. What made the Heritage broadside dead on DC arrival was Richwine's 2009 Harvard doctoral thesis. In it, the Post story noted, the aspiring scholar claimed "there are deep-seated and likely genetic IQ differences between the races and that low-IQ immigrants should be kept out of the country." The Ivy-trained Richwine, according to a Talking Points Memo piece, once contributed an article on Hispanic incarceration rates for a white nationalist website. Oops.

US Senator Marco Rubio.
He recently denounced the
Heritage-Richwine study 

For the conservative establishment, still licking its wounds from its disastrous showing with "ethnic" groups during the 2012 presidential election, Richwine's background put the right-wing under a most unwelcome spotlight. The feeling that significant, vocal elements within the Tea Party and the GOP's more extreme right would openly advocate seemingly racist positions continues to linger after Barack Obama's re-election to the presidency. Many in the GOP, including two Hispanic US Senators from important electoral states, are very uncomfortable with the parties' racist drift. Less extreme conservatives and their allies, such as Jeb Bush, are powerful enough to do something about it. Let's just say the Bush faction got the word out.

Richwine resigned from the Heritage Foundation this past week, according to many sources, including The Atlantic Wire.