Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue are working with White House officials on a revised version of RAISE Act to fulfill Trump’s poll plank to cut on immigration.
Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA) are apparently introducing a bill later this summer that would cut legal immigration to 500,000, which is otherwise about 1 million annually, by 2027, the Politico reported. The GOP senators are working with Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon, White House officials, to carefully craft the formal version.
This is in line with Trump’s election planks to limit immigration, apart from curbing other visas like the H-1B and L-1.
Reportedly, the new document is the expanded version of the RAISE Act, the legislation that was introduced by Cotton and Perdue in February; Trump had praised the legislation that time.
“Sen. Cotton know that being more deliberate about who we let into our country will raise working-class wages, which is why an overwhelming majority of American support it,†Cotton’s spokeswoman Caroline Rabbitt said. “He and Sen. Perdue are working with President Trump to fix our immigration system so that instead of undercutting American workers, it will support them and their livelihoods.â€
It was in 1996, during the Clinton-era, when a similar attempt was made to cut down on legal immigration. That time the Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, pushed President Bill Clinton to reduce the number of immigrants entering the country. However, it could not see the light of the day, apparently, due to the opposition from some top businesses, the report added.
Trump, on several occasions,  has praised the merit-based immigration system, which is similar to the one followed by Canada and Australia. Currently, the immigrant influx is mostly dependent on their family ties in the US. Cotton and Perdue would also be proposing in favor of the merit-based system. According to data from the Economic Policy Institute and the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Yearbook, legal immigrants have accounted for less than 10 percent of all immigrants in the last 15 years, and Trump promised his constituents as a presidential candidate that he would switch the US immigrations system from family-based to merit-based, the report added.
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It’s so refreshing to have a president that’s puts America first.