05 August, 2017
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday promised to slash legal immigration in half within a decade and accept only applicants who can speak almost flawless English and have specific professional skills.
From the very beginning of his run to the White House, President Trump promised to crack down on immigration.
"Right now, about two-thirds of green cards are issued every year to people who are being petitioned by family members", Nations said. Hirono. "Yet, this is exactly what the Trump-Cotton-Perdue proposal does".
US President Donald Trump is using Australia as inspiration for a major and controversial overhaul of America's immigration policy. Trump said that our current immigration system "has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our workers".
"Had this discriminatory legislation been in place generations ago, numerous very people who built and defended this nation would have been excluded", said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, the chairman of the US bishops' Committee on Migration. The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment, or RAISE, Act prioritizes green card applicants who speak the English language, are highly educated and have high job skills.
That means those who had gone through the legal immigration system and became naturalized USA citizens will no longer have the ability to sponsor their parents for permanent residency in the U.S. It cites the Florida Chamber of Commerce for stating that immigration boosts productivity, benefits the economy and complements labor demands in key industries in Florida. He further stated that the new measure would "reduce poverty, increase wages and save taxpayers billions and billions of dollars".
Cotton added that low-skilled immigrants lower the wages of Americans that work with their hands.
The proposal would also get rid of welfare for new immigrants and would cut the number of refugees allowed in the country. She also said the merit-based system, rewarding areas like education, English-language ability, high-paying job offers, past achievements and entrepreneurial initiative can be hard to document. More over 50% of our households of legal immigrants today participate in our social welfare system. That doesn?t happen under the RAISE Act.
"This competitive application process will favour applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy", Mr Trump said.
Trump said the current system "has not been fair" to United States workers as it allows entries of low-skill immigrants hired at a lower salary. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) who came out against the plan just hours after the President made it public.
At the moment, the bill has little chance of actually being passed by Congress, as Democrats are opposed to it, and Republicans divided.
