What will the proposed immigration changes mean? How can this legislation change the face of America and would it be for the better? Is President Trump right or is he just plain wrong?

Per a New York Times article, “two Republican senators, Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, who say it will protect American workers from competition from low-skilled foreign workers. Right now, the government issues more than a million green cards every year, most of them to relatives of citizens. A smaller number, 140,000, are provided on the basis of job skills.

The proposal would slash the total number of green cards issued by 41 percent in the first year and by 50 percent in the 10th year, with most of the cuts coming from family-based immigration. It would cap the number of refugees admitted every year and eliminate a program that provides green cards via lottery to people from countries that send few immigrants to the United States. The bill would not reduce employment-based green cards, but it would change how the recipients are selected by putting in place a points-based system that rewards people who speak English and have advanced degrees and work experience.”

Our immigration system should not make it even harder for those who want to immigrate to the United States. The perceived problem is that those who come here do not want to work and seek to take advantage of our generous welfare system; plus of course the idea that those who come here legally displace American citizens from low paying jobs and even the higher paying ones.

In reality it is the people who come here without permission to work or stay after their visa expires; these are the ones who work the system and take unfair advantage of our welfare system. Many do pay taxes using fake or fraudulent Social Security Cards, but a large majority do not pay any taxes and they send back the money they make to family in their home country.

So instead of fixing the illegal (undocumented) immigration problem this proposed bill just slashes how many can come here legally. That is an echo of time, for this is just what happened back at the turn of the last century. The Immigration Act of 1924 (Johnson-Reed Act), “implemented a literacy test that required immigrants over 16 years old to demonstrate basic reading comprehension in any language. It also increased the tax paid by new immigrants upon arrival and allowed immigration officials to exercise more discretion in making decisions over whom to exclude.” Plus “They created a plan that lowered the existing quota from three to two percent of the foreign-born population. They also pushed back the year on which quota calculations were based from 1910 to 1890.”

What this did was slam the door on immigration from non-white countries and keep out what was considered ‘undesirable’ aliens. There were other things in that were just plain racist, but I will let you read the reference material for that. The bill would ‘white wash’ the faces of immigration and that is just history repeating itself.

So the groups that call for these ridiculous changes to our immigration system should be ashamed of themselves! Again they are being racist and anti-foreigner, for shame on them. President Trump is not thinking, but just plain reacting to those who want to curtail all immigration into the United States.

I do agree that our immigration system needs to be fixed, but not like this and I truly hope that the moderates in Congress can prevent those who want this bill to become law from actually achieving their goals.

Next week’s blog will be about what really needs to be done to fix our immigration problem.

That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike