Amidst all the hoopla surrounding the Trump Administration, a new legal proposal put forth by two senators (and supported by the administration) is a potential turning point in U.S. immigration history.

It’s called the RAISE Act, which besides meaning “raise” is  an acronym for  “Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment”.

It is  sponsored by Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Senator David Perdue of Georgia.  This bill, if it were eventually to  become law, would revolutionize our legal immigration system.

Currently, our legal immigration system awards over 1 million green cards a year.  One million.  Think about that figure, and compare it to your own state’s population.

Do we really need a million immigrants annually?

And how are they chosen?   Given that the United States is the number one destination of immigrants worldwide,  shouldn’t we have a rigid selection system, selecting the immigrants most likely to add economic value to our nation and to assimilate?

That’s not how our current system works.  Our current system gives preference to unskilled workers.  That of course provides more competition for our own  lower skilled workers.

Not only that, but we allow chain migration.   It’s really a form of nepotism.  In chain migration, once a person gets a green card, he can bring in more relatives, and pretty soon the whole village can be living here.

And  today’s legal immigrants use a lot of welfare.  About half of them are on welfare.

Furthermore, many don’t learn English well, and the English test for naturalization has become something of a joke.

Plus, many immigrants retain the citizenship of their home country, despite the fact that that’s a violation of the naturalization oath.    Now there are many dual citizens.  Mexico , for example, encourages its citizens to become U.S. citizens in order to manipulate our political system.

Politically, immigration helps the Democratic party, as most immigrants, when naturalized (and some even who are not naturalized) vote for the Democrats.     Most immigrants nowadays want Big Government so that’s what they vote for.

So, bottom line, our legal immigration system is a mess, and it’s not in our country’s interests.    We really don’t need any more immigrants.    Automation is eliminating jobs, and in future decades we will be hard-pressed to have enough jobs for our own people.

The RAISE Act has been introduced in the Senate, and is supported by President Trump. Although it’s not perfect, it’s a great improvement  on our present system and a great big step in the right direction.

The RAISE Act would end chain migration, allowing only spouses and minor children to enter with the green card recipient.

Also, the issuance of green cards would depend upon a point system.    This would be modeled after the immigration systems of Canada and Australia in which different characteristics would earn points to qualify one to be a green card recipient.

Here’s how it was described by Trump’s Senior Policy Advisor Stephen Miller in a press conference on August 2nd:  “Additionally, we’re establishing a new entry system that’s points-based.  Australia has a points-based system, Canada has a points-based system.  And what will this system look at?  It will look at:  Does the applicant speak English?  Can they support themselves and their families financially?  Do they have a skill that will add to the U.S. economy?  Are they being paid a high wage?”

Isn’t that something?   And why not? After all, the U.S.A. is the number one destination for immigrants.   Why not be selective?

As far as the numbers go, once the system kicks in, it will begin to reduce the quantity of immigrants.   If things go as planned, during the following decade, the quantity of green card recipients will be halved, from over a million to half a million.

It would be good to reduce it even more, down to about 200,000 or less.  But, at least the RAISE Act is heading in the right direction.

If you haven’t already, I recommend you watch a video of Stephen Miller’s masterful  explanation of the RAISE Act, even facing opposition.   You can watch the video here, and here is the written text.   And click here for an article about the RAISE Act on the invaluable Numbers USA website.

If you agree with the RAISE Act, then you need to start educating people you know and you need to start hounding your senators and representatives.  They may need a lot of pressure.   You can contact them here.

© 2017 Allan Wall – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Allan Wall: allan39@provalue.net