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Roy Beck

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Roy Beck
Born
Roy Howard Beck

(1948-07-12) July 12, 1948 (age 76)
Marshfield, Webster County
Missouri, United States
Alma materUniversity of Missouri School of Journalism (BJ)
Notable workThe Case Against Immigration
Back of the Hiring Line
TitlePresident & Founder, NumbersUSA
SpouseShirley Anne (Neiger) Beck (m. 1970)
Children2

Roy Howard Beck (born July 12, 1948) is an American author and the founder and president of the anti-immigration advocacy organization NumbersUSA. He is a former Washington, DC bureau chief of Booth Newspapers and an environment-beat newspaper reporter, formerly with The Grand Rapids Press and The Cincinnati Enquirer.[1] Beck was also the Washington, DC editor of John Tanton's white nationalist magazine The Social Contract.

Career

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Beck is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.[2] He was raised in Marshfield, Missouri and delivered milk and collected cans for pocket money in his youth. During the late 1960s, Beck worked at The Grand Rapids Press and The Cincinnati Enquirer as an environmental journalist. He has claimed that the consequences of population growth on natural resources which became a concern during the 1960s environmental movement led to his interest in immigration.[3] Beck worked as the Washington editor of Social Contract Press, which has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[4]

He left journalism during the 1990s and founded NumbersUSA. Beck has gained notable attention in 1996 via a disputed[5][6] presentation recorded on a VHS tape where he used gumballs to show that immigration to the United States did not alleviate world poverty, because so many remained impoverished outside of the United States. The conclusion was that the United States should restrict immigration more and help the impoverished where they are, instead of allowing them to migrate to richer countries.[7] David R. Henderson, an economist at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California,[8] noted that Beck makes it seem as if allowing immigration is done at a cost to Americans, but that is not what research on the issue indicates.[9] That same year, Beck authored the book The Case Against Immigration which was released in the lead-up to the 1996 elections in the United States.[10]

The New York Times credited Beck's NumbersUSA organization with applying enough pressure to U.S. Senators to defeat a comprehensive immigration bill in June 2007.[11] He has been described as a "tutor" for U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo on immigration issues.[12] According to The Washington Post, Beck had "been marginalized in Washington as an eccentric figure."[13] He released Back of the Hiring Line in 2021 which focused on if American institutions owe U.S. citizens.[14]

Bibliography

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  • Beck, Roy Howard (2021). Back of the hiring line : a 200-year history of immigration surges, employer bias, and depression of Black wealth. Arlington, VA: NumbersUSA. ISBN 9781737954705.
  • Beck, Roy; Kolankiewicz, Leon (2000). "The Environmental Movement's Retreat from Advocating U.S. Population Stabilization (1970–1998): A First Draft of History". Journal of Policy History. 12 (1): 123–156. doi:10.1353/jph.2000.0001. ISSN 0898-0306. PMID 19530363. S2CID 29819004.
  • Beck, Roy Howard (1996). The case against immigration : the moral, economic, social, and environmental reasons for reducing U.S. immigration back to traditional levels (First ed.). New York. ISBN 9780393039153.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

References

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  1. ^ Davis, Julie Hirschfeld (December 4, 2014). "Genial Force Behind Bitter Opposition to Immigration Overhaul". The New York Times. p. A20. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  2. ^ Davis, Julie Hirschfeld (3 December 2014). "Genial Force Behind Bitter Opposition to Immigration Overhaul". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Hirschfeld Davis, Julie (December 3, 2014). "Genial Force Behind Bitter Opposition to Immigration Overhaul". New York Times.
  4. ^ "Anti-Immigration Groups". Intelligence Report (101). Southern Poverty Law Center. Spring 2001. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
  5. ^ Immigration, Poverty and Gumballs, BS King, Graph Paper Diaries, January 21, 2016.
  6. ^ Immigration, Poverty and Gumballs Part 2: The Amazing World of Gumball, BS King, Graph Paper Diaries, February 22, 2017.
  7. ^ Ball, Molly (August 1, 2013). "The Little Group Behind the Big Fight to Stop Immigration Reform". Retrieved July 18, 2016.
  8. ^ Henderson, David. "When Numeracy Misleads".
  9. ^ Henderson, David. "The Other Problems with Roy Beck on Immigration".
  10. ^ Beck, Roy (1996). The Case Against Immigration: The Moral, Economic, Social, and Environmental Reasons for Reducing U.S. Immigration Back to Traditional Levels. Roy Beck. ISBN 9780393039153.
  11. ^ Pear, Robert (July 15, 2007), "Little-Known Group Claims a Win on Immigration", The New York Times
  12. ^ "Protecting their own; Reform caucus a barometer of GOP schism on immigration."; Jonathan Tilove. San Antonio Express-News. San Antonio, Tex.: Jun 9, 2002. pg. 1G
  13. ^ "After years on the outside, foes of legal immigration find a louder voice with Trump's election". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  14. ^ Denise Long, Pamela (Fall 2022). "Immigration Viewed from the Back of the Hiring Line". American Affairs. 6 (3).
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