The origins of this volume lie in a conference I organized at Princeton University in January 2005 on the theme “Contemporary Politics of Immigration in the United States.” With the sponsorship of the James Madison Program and the close assistance of program manager Reggie Feiner, we convened a diverse group of well-known activists, scholars, and journalists, most of whom had taken highly visible public positions on various aspects of immigration policy. Conference participants included Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute; Peter Brimelow of VDARE; Amitai Etzioni of George Washington University; Stephen Camarota of the Center for Immigration Studies; Stephen Macedo of Princeton University; Philip Kasinitz of the City University of New York; Jane Junn of Rutgers University; Ken Masugi of Claremont University; Rogers Smith of the University of Pennsylvania; Linda Bosniak of Rutgers University Law School; Elizabeth Cohen of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University; Lina Newton of Hunter College; Noah Pickus of Duke University; Peter Skerry of Boston College; and Charles Westoff of Princeton University.

Our group spent two days together grappling with some of the more troubling aspects of the current immigration situation in the United States. At the top of the list was the issue of the nation's estimated 11 million–14 million illegal aliens. Other topics treated included the history of American attitudes toward newcomers and the impact of large-scale immigration on current U.S. citizens, especially poor minorities.