Laughlin is the superintendent of the Eugenics Records Office (ERO), which has transitioned from being its own entity to a sub-department of the Station for Experimental Evolution under the control of the Carnegie Institution. The office reviews records in order to distinguish "normal" and "abnormal" families from one another based on hereditary traits. Laughlin is a leading champion of sterilization globally.

In 1922, he publishes the report Eugenical Sterilization in the United States, including a model statute that will be used as the basis for many of the eugenic sterilization laws of the 20th century aimed against people labeled as "mentally defective." Laughlin's congressional testimonies will also contribute to the passage of the U.S. Immigration Restriction Act of 1924, which restricts immigration into the United States to one-fifth of what it was before the passage of the bill, with particularly severe restrictions applying to immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe.