A senior policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation who co-authored a controversial report on immigration has resigned after his academic work came under intense criticism and scrutiny.
Jason Richwine wrote a report with Heritage senior research fellow Robert Rector that estimated the taxpayer cost of legalizing 11 million illegal immigrants at $6.3 trillion over 50 years,
The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report was released earlier this week and immediately came under fire by immigration supporters — even causing a rift among Republicans, who remain sharply divided over comprehensive immigration reform.
Attacks then came from liberals and Hispanic lawmakers on Capitol Hill for Richwine’s work for his Harvard University doctorate on the relative IQs of different immigrant groups, the Journal reports.
In his dissertation, Richwine argued that persistent differences between immigrants’ IQs and those of white Americans should be a factor in determining who should be allowed to permanently come to the U.S.
He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 2009.
“Jason Richwine let us know he’s decided to resign from his position. He’s no longer employed by Heritage,” Mike Gonzalez, the foundation’s vice president for communications, told the Journal in a statement. “It is our long-standing policy not to discuss internal personnel matters.”
Richwine could not immediately be reached for comment, the Journal reports.
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