Trump’s Immigration Proposal will not be law

May 23, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Reference is made to “What’s Missing in Trump’s ‘Beautiful, Bold’ Immigration Plan” (KN May 18). The article is right about DACA (for 1.8 million youngsters brought by their illegal parents) and amnesty for the 11 million illegal immigrants. The President’s signature policy is to reform the immigration system under which foreigners are allowed into the country – a shift back to the older system that excluded certain categories of people.
Prior to 1965, virtually only Whites were allowed into the US. This was changed under President Johnson’s open immigration policy that allowed immigrants from continents other than Europe. It was further reformed to allow for family unification.
Currently, Americans and green card holders can sponsor relatives to settle in the US. The process can take anywhere from six months (for spouses) to 16 years for brothers and sisters. Trump wants to abolish certain categories of sponsorship. In short, he wishes to replace family unification with accepting immigrants based on skills and education.
Trump wants to reduce the number of family-based green cards and move towards a points-based (“merit-based”) system that will reward, among other factors, education, skills and English language skills.
Currently about 12% of those receiving green cards (1.1 million in 2017) entered the U.S. based on skill-based visas (such as the H1B that are dominated by nationals from Europe and Asia) while some 66% are family-based green cards.
The new proposal will increase skills-based green cards close to 60%. Points will be awarded to applicants based on their education, work experience, age, English language ability, among other factors.
Trump will also do away with the diversity lottery green cards, which currently makes 50,000 green cards available to under-represented ethnic groups or countries each year. A large majority (over 70%) of H1B visas, for skilled workers, went to Indians in fiscal year 2018. These are eventually converted to green cards.
Indians getting green cards have been in the range of 57,000-62,000 in the 2015-2017 period based primarily on skills, education, and English. But there is a huge backlog of over 300,000 skilled Indian professionals in US waiting for a green card. In the last couple years, tens of thousands of Indian H1B professionals migrated from US to Canada with residency status, boosting that country’s economy.
The Trump proposal to reform immigration is dead on arrival in Congress. It will not become law. Trump’s spokespersons say the President’s plan can be a working proposal. Legislators from both parties in both houses of Congress have rejected the proposal. Some legislators have floated their own proposals that include some kind of amnesty for DACA and the other 11 million illegals. This may be a no-go for Trump, who wants illegal immigrants to be an issue in the 2020 Presidential campaign.
Yours truly,
Dr. Vishnu Bisram

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