{"id":109493,"date":"2017-08-02T22:26:58","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T02:26:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=109493"},"modified":"2017-08-02T22:26:58","modified_gmt":"2017-08-03T02:26:58","slug":"trump-backs-merit-based-immigration-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/08\/02\/trump-backs-merit-based-immigration-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump backs merit-based immigration legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump<\/a>
Trump said the current system “has not been fair” to US workers as it allows entries of low-skill immigrants hired at a lower salary. (Photo<\/a> by Michael Vadon\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — US President Donald Trump backed legislation set to slash legal immigration on Wednesday by unveiling a “merit-based” system unfavorable for low-skill immigrants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Introducing what he called the most significant overhaul of immigration in half a century, Trump said the current system “has not been fair” to US workers as it allows entries of low-skill immigrants hired at a lower salary.<\/span><\/p>\n

Struggling American families “deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and that puts America first,” Trump said in a speech at the White House, joined by the bill’s sponsors, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Cotton-Perdue bill, or the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act, was first introduced in February.<\/span><\/p>\n

The early version of the bill was designed to cut legal immigrants onto the United States by 50 percent over the next 10 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

After being reintroduced with some changes, the bill proposed to eliminate certain pathways to family-based immigration, stipulating that only spouses and minor children of the U.S. citizen and permanent residents would be eligible for green cards.<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the act creates a merit-based system that grades possible immigrants for earning a green card, a major attempt to completely overhaul the family-based approach.<\/span><\/p>\n

Factors that would be taken into account in the competitive process include English language skills, education, financial capability, and age.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legislation, Trump stressed, also “prevents new immigrants from collecting welfare and protects US workers from being displaced.”<\/span><\/p>\n

“And that’s a very big thing. They’re not going to come in and just immediately go and collect welfare,” he continued.<\/span><\/p>\n

The initial bill, stalled in the Senate for several months, was praised by the country’s anti-immigration groups, while it is predicted to face an uphill battle through the Congress.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shortly after the bill was unveiled, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the bill would be “devastating” to the US economy “which relies on this immigrant workforce.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Other critics argued that such measures would dissuade skilled immigrants who would otherwise want to come to the United States.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 — US President Donald Trump backed legislation set to slash legal immigration on Wednesday by unveiling a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":109495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,17],"tags":[9869,20307],"class_list":["post-109493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-w","tag-donald-trump","tag-legal-immigration","mauthors-xinhua","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}