# NumbersUSA The grassroots arm of the [[Tanton Network]] — the third leg, with [[FAIR]] (lobbying) and the [[Center for Immigration Studies]] (research), of the restrictionist infrastructure that [[John Tanton]] assembled between 1979 and 1996. Founded in 1996 by [[Roy Beck]], a former Booth Newspapers environmental reporter, and initially housed and funded through Tanton's U.S. Inc., NumbersUSA was built to do the one thing the other two could not: deliver constituents. Its method is mass constituent contact — faxes in the 1990s, then email and phone campaigns, now an app — organized through a membership it puts in the millions and a congressional "grade card" that scores every member on immigration votes. Its distinctive position is in the name: it opposes *numbers*, legal immigration included, and argues for cutting total admissions to something like the pre-1965 level, which is what separates it from the border-security right and connects it to the [[Carrying Capacity]] and population-environmental lineage the [[Zero Population Growth]] page traces. ## Record The organization takes credit for killing the 2007 comprehensive immigration bill — it generated enough calls to shut down the Senate switchboard — and for the death of the 2013 Gang of Eight bill, the [[Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of 2013]], in the House, and both claims are broadly accepted by its opponents. Its policy program — mandatory E-Verify to "turn off the jobs magnet," an end to family-based "chain migration" and the diversity lottery, a numerical cap — was fringe in 2007, the Republican platform by 2016, and administration policy under both Trump terms, which is the trajectory the [[Immigration Restrictionism Ecosystem]] documents. Beck's own frame, the "gumball" video (1996 lecture, viral from 2010), makes the case with demographics rather than culture: immigration cannot dent world poverty, so numbers should be set by domestic effect on wages and the environment. ## Money and lineage Early funding came through Tanton and the [[Colcom Foundation]], the vehicle of Mellon heiress [[Cordelia Scaife May]], which has been the network's largest single donor across all three organizations (the [[Campaign Finance Timeline]] carries the figures). NumbersUSA has spent decades distancing itself from Tanton — Beck said the group has "never" shared his views, removed references to him, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which lists FAIR and CIS as hate groups, does not list NumbersUSA — while sharing his donors, his founding premise, and the [[Nativism]] tradition running back through [[Madison Grant]] and [[Proposition 187 (1994)]]. Beck stepped back from day-to-day leadership in 2023; the organization is now run by co-presidents Jeremy Beck and Michael Hough with Anne Manetas as chief executive, and Roy Beck heads the NumbersUSA Action affiliate. ## See Also - [[Tanton Network]] · [[John Tanton]] · [[Roy Beck]] · [[FAIR]] · [[Center for Immigration Studies]] · [[Colcom Foundation]] · [[Cordelia Scaife May]] - [[Immigration Restrictionism Ecosystem]] · [[Nativism]] · [[Carrying Capacity]] · [[Zero Population Growth]] · [[Madison Grant]] - [[Proposition 187 (1994)]] · [[US Immigration Timeline]] · [[Campaign Finance Timeline]] · [[Think Tank and Policy Infrastructure Timeline]]