Immigration on Both Sides of the Atlantic: Guests from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) at Ordo Iuris

The aim of the meeting was to exchange experiences and best practices. The American organization was represented by Matthew J. O’Brien, FAIR’s deputy executive director, a former immigration judge and the author of the chapter on immigration in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, and by Paweł Styrna, Ph.D., FAIR’s Polish-born director of international relations. On the Ordo Iuris side, the panel included attorney Nikodem Bernaciak of the Center for Family and Demographic Research and Agnieszka Kołek, secretary of the Collegium of Research and Analysis, who until spring 2026 worked at MCC Brussels. Patryk Ignaszczak of the Ordo Iuris Center for International Law also spoke, as did the other participants, who actively joined the discussion from the outset. The debate was moderated by Olivier Bault, communications director of the Ordo Iuris Institute.

From research to presidential executive orders

O’Brien explained that FAIR is funded exclusively by private donors and is independent of political parties. FAIR representatives served on Donald Trump’s transition team and helped write many of the executive orders he signed. The organization drafts bills for Congress, helps states and cities prepare legislation countering so-called sanctuary city policies, and is currently suing the state governments of New York and Maryland over statutes that prevent them from cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the federal immigration agency, in removing criminal aliens.

Styrna stressed that FAIR, which has been active since 1979 and counts some 3 million supporters, combines under one roof activism, lobbying, research, litigation, and investigations based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Thanks to these, it has exposed, among other things, the funding sources of groups involved in the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles.

According to FAIR’s flagship study, illegal immigration costs American taxpayers a net $160 billion or so a year, while immigrants send around $60 billion a year in remittances to their countries of origin. FAIR’s official estimate puts the number of illegal aliens in the United States at 18.7 million, but, as O’Brien pointed out, the real figure may be as high as 35–45 million. The American guests stressed that legal immigration is no less of a problem than illegal immigration: the United States naturalizes around one million people a year, and once green cards and long-term visas are included, the inflow ranges from 1.5 to 3.5 million people a year.

Lessons from the Trump administration’s policy

In O’Brien’s view, the Trump administration did nothing extraordinary; it simply began applying the law as Congress wrote it, after decades of selective enforcement. Securing the border turned out to be the simplest part and, as he noted, a country with a competent border guard, such as Poland, can achieve this through executive action. According to the FAIR representative, some 650,000 immigration violators have been removed from the United States, including about 150,000 who accepted the government’s offer of a free plane ticket and $3,000 to return home. O’Brien links this to the drop in crime in the United States.

The issue of people already in the country proved more difficult. FAIR advised starting operations in states and counties whose authorities cooperate with ICE, such as Tennessee and Texas. Once illegal aliens begin moving en masse to states and cities that do not cooperate in apprehending and removing them, the authorities there will quickly change their attitude toward cooperating with ICE. The Trump administration, however, underestimated the resistance of left-wing media and local authorities and did not heed this advice. Styrna warned that some centrist voters support deportations in theory but back away when they see what they mean in practice – and Europe must be prepared for this as well.

Poland: not so safe after all

The second part of the debate concerned Poland. Bernaciak presented the Ordo Iuris report on Foreigners’ Integration Centers, pointing out that the concept is rooted in the ideology of multiculturalism and in European Union policy. He also discussed the main provisions of the EU Pact on Migration and Asylum. As he noted, the government’s assurances that Poland is safe rely on a methodology that takes into account the migration situation over the past five years, and therefore also the influx of refugees from Ukraine after 2022. The first year in which they will no longer be taken into account will be 2028 – right after Poland’s next parliamentary elections. Ordo Iuris had already pointed out that Poland has no guarantee of exemption from the solidarity mechanism.

Ignaszczak cited Eurostat data according to which Poland issued 467,000 first residence permits in 2025, ranking third in the EU after Spain and Germany, and ahead of France. Bault concluded that Poland therefore has high legal immigration and, as a result of the Migration Pact, is losing control over illegal immigration. This is because the number of migrants that member states are to accept under so-called solidarity is ultimately decided by the Council of the EU, where the upper hand belongs to countries that have pursued irresponsible migration policies for decades.

Brussels and the American left: the same mindset

Referring to Prof. Frank Furedi’s books Why Borders Matter and The War on the Past, Agnieszka Kołek pointed out that the crisis is rooted in a culture war. The slogan “diversity is our strength” presupposes that a cohesive society is something bad, while the erasure of history and tradition serves the centralization of power and censorship. As she emphasized, the European Commission uses every crisis, including the migration crisis, to take over the competences of member states. In her view, the elites who benefit from cheap labor and do not bear the costs of mass immigration are characterized not only by “suicidal empathy” but also by oikophobia, that is, contempt for their own nation.

Participants agreed that the approach of Brussels has proved very close to the ideological approach of the American left. O’Brien explained that in the United States, the left has successfully equated the immigration issue with the civil rights movement and entrenched the myth of America as a “nation of immigrants.” He recalled that American culture has British roots and that the assimilation of newcomers was made possible by a shared language and legal system. Citing Prof. Paul Collier’s book Exodus, Styrna stressed that the culture of the country of origin matters and that the old social contract – acceptance in exchange for assimilation – has eroded in recent decades.

Business, universities, and a common front

Participants in the debate drew attention to the role of employment agencies, as well as private language schools and universities that bring foreigners to Poland on student visas, even though in practice these foreigners take up work. The guests from FAIR confirmed that a similar phenomenon exists in the United States. O’Brien asked where the belief comes from that one can run a business by breaking the law and exploiting illegal workers. Styrna, for his part, recalled that under the communist system the black market was the lubricant that allowed an overregulated economy to function somehow. Today, in the overregulated and overtaxed economies of the West, in Europe and the United States alike, a similar role is played by cheap, illegal foreign labor, which enables businesses to survive.

The speakers stressed the need for closer cooperation among conservatives on both sides of the Atlantic. O’Brien pointed out that they are united by a belief in God, the rule of law, the right of nations to self-determination, and the free market. He added that Americans can learn a great deal from the Polish Border Guard, which they met during their visit, as the northern U.S. border with Canada resembles Poland’s borders in terms of the challenges it poses.

Summing up the meeting, Bault observed that over the past two years the United States has shown that quickly closing the border and sending back a substantial share of illegal aliens is possible through political decisions. He pointed out that the American experience, including the Trump administration’s mistakes, will be valuable for future governments in Europe that seek to regain control over immigration. Bault also noted that FAIR’s advice, which the Trump administration did not follow – to begin removals in states and cities that cooperate with the federal authorities, so that illegal aliens would move to sanctuary cities, which would eventually have to ask for help themselves – could be applied in Europe. If, as a result of the renationalization of migration and asylum policy advocated by Ordo Iuris, some Schengen Area countries began effectively detaining and removing illegal immigrants, the latter would quickly start moving to the countries that do not do so. As a result, those countries too would be forced to change their policies, and even to turn to the others for help in getting rid of illegal immigrants.

See also:

• Banned Conference in Paris: The Immigration Debate Went Ahead Anyway – on the Radio and Online
• Lisbon: How to Take Back Control of Migration Policy? Packed Auditorium for the Presentation of a Polish-Hungarian Report
• The End of Deportation Tourism? European Parliament Backs Tougher Migration Policy
• Taking Back Control from Brussels: How EU Member States Can Reclaim Migration Policy Now
• The Migration Pact and the Protection of the EU’s External Borders in 26 Questions and Answers

Source of cover photo: Ordo Iuris