Washington, D.C.—Today President Trump endorsed the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act, a bill introduced by Senator Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) and Senator David Perdue (R-Georgia) that would give priority to the best-skilled immigrants from around the world and reducing overall immigration by half.
In his statement Trump said, for decades, low-skilled and unskilled immigration into the United States has surged, depressing wages and harming America’s most vulnerable citizens. Our system does not prioritize the most highly skilled immigrants—just 1 out of every 15 immigrants to the United States comes here because of their skills. On average, 1 million immigrants are accepted into the United States for legal permanent residency annually, and most of them are low or unskilled workers. This influx is the equivalent of adding more than the population of San Francisco to the country every year. More than 50 percent of all immigrant households receive welfare benefits, compared to only 30 percent of native households in the United States that receive welfare benefits.
The RAISE Act replaces the current permanent employment-visa framework with a skills-based system that rewards applicants based on their individual merits. The system rewards education, English-language ability, high-paying job offers, past achievements, and entrepreneurial initiative. And this system is similar to the merit-based immigration systems used by Canada and Australia.
The RAISE Act reduces overall immigration numbers to limit low-skilled and unskilled labor entering the United States.
The RAISE Act prioritizes immediate family members of United States residents, including spouses and minor children, but ends preferences for extended family members and adult children. United States citizens needing to take care of elderly parents can receive renewable, temporary visas for them.
The RAISE Act eliminates the outdated Diversity Visa lottery system, which serves questionable economic and humanitarian interests.
The RAISE Act limits permanent resident status for refugees to 50,000 a year, in line with the 13-year average.
