International News

WASHINGTON, August 3,(APP): President Trump on Wednesday endorsed a new
bill to cut the legal immigration by half by significantly changing the immigration system in place for half a century.
The proposed RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong
Employment) moved in Senate by two Republican Senators is a modified version of an earlier bill introduced in April to cut immigration by half from the current level of more than 1 million by changing the way the Green Card is granted that give permanent legal residence in the United States. Green Cards provide permanent residency, work authorization, and fast track to citizenship.
The RAISE Act will reduce poverty, increase wages, and save taxpayers
billions and billions of dollars. It will do this by changing the way the United States issues Green Cards to nationals from other countries, President Trump said while unveiling the bill which will now be debated.
The bill is reflective of President Trump’s election promises to cut
immigration to protect US workers and taxpayers.
The RAISE Act ends chain migration, and introduces a new points-based
system for receiving a Green Card. This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy.
The RAISE Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting
welfare, and protects U.S. workers from being displaced. And that’s a very big thing. They’re not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare, the President said.
The bill will bring about drastic changes to family-based immigration
programs that allows siblings and grown children of US citizens and legal residents to apply for green cards. However, minor children and spouses would still be able to apply.
The new bill also aims to introduce a point-system, like the one
currently used in Canada, that will take into account factors such as spoken English skills, education levels and job skills for applications for the 140,000 employment-based green cards distributed annually.
It also proposes a cap on 50,000 per year and end a visa diversity
lottery that awards 50,000 green cards a year, mostly to areas that do not have many immigrants to the United States, including Africa.