Anti-Immigration Group Weighs in on RAISE ACT

“The RAISE Act ends chain-migration by limiting family-based immigration to the nuclear family and replacing the employment-based system with a modernized, skills-based point structure. It helps select immigrants who have the tools to succeed in the U.S. while returning immigration to more traditional levels.

“Senators Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), David Perdue (R-Ga.), and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), along with Representative Francis Rooney (R-Fla.), should be applauded for recognizing the current dysfunction of our outdated immigration policies that, unlike the rest of the nation, have been stuck in a time warp for the last 50 years. The RAISE Act closely follows the bipartisan recommendations of President Clinton’s Jordan Commission, which called for moving the nation to an immigration model that emphasizes skills over bloodlines and returns immigration to more traditional levels.

“Nothing underscores the failure of our current immigration system like the constant clamor of the business lobby for more ‘skilled’ workers, while we import over one million immigrants each and every year, with nearly one-quarter lacking even a high school diploma. The unremitting increase in unskilled immigrants has resulted in depressed wages and working conditions for Americans already struggling to make it in our rapidly changing economy.

Key components of the bill would:

• Establish a point-based system that would help select immigrants who have the most to offer this nation and have the skill set needed to succeed once they arrive, while reducing the immigrant flow to traditional levels.
• Ensure that immediate families – the primary immigrant, spouse, and minor children – remain intact during the immigration process.
• Eliminate the needless and fraud-ridden diversity visa lottery.
• Place a responsible, firm limit on refugee admissions at 50,000 per year.

“The RAISE Act would ensure that immigration levels – which currently operate in a vacuum and are unaffected by the unemployment level or the economic needs of the country – would finally begin to serve the national interest. It’s clearly time for this nation to jettison the failed policies of the past and embrace a new paradigm that will do a much better job of selecting immigrants who arrive with the skills they need to make this nation better, while also benefitting themselves and their immediate families.