The common sense immigration reform we need.
Senator Tom Cotton's RAISE Actjust got a big boost from the White House.
President Donald Trump endorsed a plan this morning that will halve legal immigration levels beginning in 2027 and dramatically cut down on the number of green cards that are doled out to low-skilled workers.
The immigration system currently weighs familial ties in deciding who gets to come to the US. Two U.S Senators, Tom Cotton and David Perdue, want candidates with the most valuable skills to jump to the front of the line.
Trump said in remarks that he delivered alongside the senators that the present policy 'has placed substantial pressure on American worker, taxpayers and community resources.'
'It has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our workers,' he asserted.
The president claimed the reforms would protect American workers and reduce the strain in the country's welfare system.
'That's a big thing. They're not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare. That doesn't happen under the RAISE act. They can't do that,' he stated.
What's the RAISE Act? It means immigration cuts the first stage of a shift to merit immigration.
For over a quarter century, the United States has accepted an average of 1 million immigrants annually—the equivalent of adding the entire state of Montana each year. But when only 1 out of every 15 immigrants arrives in the United States on a skills-based visa, the majority of the remaining immigrants are either low-skill or unskilled. This generation-long influx of low-skilled labor has been a major factor in the downward pressure on the wages of working Americans, with the wages of recent immigrants hardest hit. Wages for Americans with only high school diplomas have declined by 2 percent since the late 1970s, and for those who didn’t finish high school, they have declined by nearly 20 percent. This collapse in wages threatens to create a near permanent underclass for whom the American Dream is always just out of reach.
It would keep part of family reunification in place...
Prioritize Immediate Family Households. The RAISE Act would retain immigration preferences for the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. It would eliminate preferences for the extended and adult family members of U.S. residents, including: • Adult parents of U.S. citizens • Adult siblings of U.S. citizens • Unmarried adult children of U.S. citizens • Married adult children of U.S. citizens • Unmarried adult children of legal permanent residents
These are major elements of chain migration. It'll be the easiest target for the media's pathos machine so I don't expect this aspect of it to survive if the Senate were to pass it. But it's nice to DREAM.
I've been beating the drum for merit-based immigration for a while. It won't fix all our problems. But it will stem some of the bleeding. Think of it as a band aid. We need to do a whole lot more. But it's one place to start.