Trump Endorses Legislation That Would Slash Legal Immigration In Half

President Donald Trump on Wednesday endorsed controversial legislation that would slash annual legal immigration to the United States in half over the next decade, from over 1 million people to roughly 500,000. Trump, who ran for president on a platform of reducing immigration on all fronts, pitted legal immigrants against blue collar Americans in his remarks, insisting that measures favoring a smaller number of highly-skilled workers would reduce competition for jobs.

"This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy," he said. "The RAISE Act prevents new migrants and new immigrants from collecting welfare and protects U.S. workers from being displaced."

The long-shot proposal is a revision of legislation introduced in February by Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia. The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act would strike out the diversity visa lottery, which currently reserves 50,000 visas for people from countries with low US immigration rates, Politico reports. It would also cap refugee admissions at 50,000, and disallow citizens and green card holders from petitioning extended relatives for legal permanent residency.

This would kneecap the most popular avenues for legal immigration, according to immigration policy experts. A Migration Policy Institute study found that 64 percent of legal immigrants were granted status based on a family tie in 2014, the NY Times reports. For comparison, only 15 percent of immigrants that year entered the country on a skilled labor visa.

A press briefing on the proposal got heated on Wednesday, when CNN's Jim Acosta accused White House Senior Advisor Stephen Miller of "trying to change what it means to be an immigrant coming to this country" and attempting to "engineer a racial and ethnic flow” of immigration by prioritizing English speakers. Miller, who hails from Santa Monica, California, in turn accused Acosta of "cosmopolitan bias."

"The reality is is that this legislation would devalue family," Anu Joshi, director of immigration policy at the New York Immigration Coalition, told Gothamist.

She added that current immigration restrictions, in place since the passage of the Immigration and Naturalization Act in 1965, already generate years-long waiting lists for migrants seeking status. "It hasn't been updated to meet our modern day needs. If you are applying for a green card from China or India for an adult child or sibling, you could be waiting 20 years."

The RAISE act has been met with pushback on both sides of the aisle. "If this proposal were to become law, it would be devastating to our state's economy," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated Wednesday, adding that his state of South Carolina relies on an immigrant workforce to fill agriculture and tourism jobs, and would be economically "devastated" if these measures passed.

New York City agencies and politicians came out against RAISE on Wednesday, following Trump's remarks. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito stated that the Trump administration "turns our nation of opportunity into one of racist exclusion, predicated on nationalistic standards like prioritizing English-speaking applicants."

"I don't think there is a lot of support for this right now in Congress," Joshi said. "The thing that's concerning is that as conversations continue about immigration, this might get folded into other proposals."