Krikorian is the executive director of Center for Immigration Studies (CIS). Before coming to CIS in 1995 Krikorian worked in the communications department of John Tanton’s Federation for Immigration Reform (FAIR). CIS was founded in 1985 by Tanton to serve as an immigration restrictionist think-tank. The group exists to help the anti-immigrant movement win the “Battle of Ideas,” within the immigration debate. Beginning in 1986 the group was probably the first to openly advance the doctrine of “self-deportation,” or as they call it “attrition through enforcement.” Krikorian has led the group since 1995.
Krikorian has a history of promoting hate and bigotry. Over the years he has contributed writing to Tanton’s racist journal The Social Contract, including a summer 2013 article that was published as part of an issue themed “Refugee racket.” In addition to contributing to the Social Contract journal, shortly after taking a position with CIS in the mid-1990s, Krikorian began participating in The Social Contract Press’ Writers Workshops. The workshops have hosted a slew of white nationalist presenters including Peter Brimelow, founder of the white nationalist website VDARE (Named VDARE for Virginia Dare, allegedly the “first white child born in America”) and Peter Gemma, an author of the anti-Semitic journal Occidental Quarterly.
Despite trying to portray themselves in Washington as a legitimate organization Krikorian and CIS continuously promote VDARE by circulating articles by its contributors, present at controversial events, and publicly make bigoted statements about minorities and immigrants.