Outlet profile

Center for Immigration Studies

U.S. right (immigration restrictionist)

Owned byIndependent 501(c)(3) nonprofit think tank governed by a board of directors; no single individual or corporate owner

FundingPrimarily private foundation grants; largest donor is the Colcom Foundation, founded by Cordelia Scaife May (a close associate of John Tanton and heiress to the Mellon banking fortune); past donors also include the Maytag Family Foundation and the Foundation for the Carolinas

On the administrationbroadly supportive

Background

The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) was founded in 1985 as a spin-off from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). CIS officially credits historian Otis L. Graham as its founder, but the organization has deep ties to John Tanton — an ophthalmologist who built a network of immigration-restrictionist groups and who critics have linked to nativist and eugenicist views. CIS describes itself as an independent, nonpartisan research organization, but media analysts and watchdog groups consistently characterize it as right-leaning given its consistent advocacy for reduced immigration across the board. The Southern Poverty Law Center has designated CIS a hate group because of its Tanton ties and research framing, a label CIS firmly rejects; PolitiFact examined the designation in 2017 and found it was not clearly supported by a standard definition of a hate group. The libertarian Cato Institute has separately criticized CIS's research methodology, arguing its studies systematically inflate welfare-use figures for immigrants to produce alarming conclusions. CIS's primary financial backer, the Colcom Foundation, was created by Cordelia Scaife May, a close friend of John Tanton, connecting the organization's funding to the same network that built FAIR. Mark Krikorian, who has served as executive director since 1995 and was an advisor to Project 2025, is the organization's most prominent public voice; since January 2025 he has praised Trump's executive actions on immigration and framed the administration's agenda as fulfilling long-held restrictionist goals.

Sources

Profile compiled 2026-07-03; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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