On April 10, Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR), David Perdue (R-NC), and Josh
Hawley (R-MO) reintroduced the RAISE Act (S.1103, the Reforming American
Immigration for Strong Employment Act), thie is a legislation that would:
1. Slash family-based visas. All family-based legal immigration other than spouses and minor children will be eliminated.
2. Introduce a merit-based points system. Visas will be approved or denied based on factors including English ability, advanced education, age and specific job skills. A person who accrued 30 points under
the following allocation scheme would be eligible to submit an application.
3. Reduce refugee visas. The bill proposes a 50,000-visa cap, despite the ever-worsening global refugee crisis.
4. Eliminate the Diversity Visa Program. This will cut 50,000 annual visas for individuals from historically low-immigration countries, primarily in Africa and Asia.
| Age (10 points maximum) | Point Allocation | Formal Education (13 points maximum) | Point Allocation | English language proficiency (12 points maximum) | Point Allocation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-17 | 0 points | U.S. or Foreign High School Degree | 1 points | 1st – 5th deciles | 0 points |
| 18-21 | 6 points | Foreign bachelor's degree | 5 points | 6th – 7th deciles | 6 points |
| 22-25 | 8 points | U.S. Bachelor's Degree | 6 points | 8th decile | 10 points |
| 26-30 | 10 points | Foreign master's degree in Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) | 7 points | 9th decile | 11 points |
| 31-35 | 8 points | U.S. STEM Master's Degree | 8 points | 10th decile | 12 points |
| 36-40 | 6 points | Foreign Professional Degree or Doctoral STEM | 10 points | ||
| 41-45 | 4 points | U.S. Professional Degree or Doctoral STEM | 13 points | ||
| 46-50 | 2 points | ||||
| 51 and above | 0 points |
| Extraordinary achievement (40 points maximum) | Point Allocation | Job offer/highly compensated employment (13 points maximum) | Point Allocation | Investment and active management of new enterprise (12 points maximum) | Point Allocation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nobel Laureate or comparable recognition | 25 points | Annual salary offered is at least 150% but less than 200% of the median household income in the state of employment | 5 points | Investment of at least $1.35 million but less than $1.8 million in a U.S. New Commercial Enterprise (NCE); maintain the investment for three years and play active role in managing the NCE as primary occupation | 6 points |
| Individual Olympic medal or first place in a comparable international sporting event | 15 points | Annual salary offered is at least 200% but less than 300% of the median household income in the state of employment | 8 points | Investment of at least $1.8 million in a U.S. NCE; maintain the investment for three years and play active role in managing the NCE as primary occupation | 12 points |
| Annual salary offered is at least 300% of the median household income in the state of employment | 13 points |
There are a total of 40 millions immigrants in the US as of year 2019. Slightly more than 1 million immigrants are granted lawful permanent residence (informally known as getting a green card) annually; just over half are already in the United States and adjusting from temporary status.
Approximately half of immigrants living in the United States are from Mexico and other Latin American countries. Many Central Americans are fleeing because of desperate social and economic circumstances created in part by U.S. foreign policy in Central America over many decades.
Currently, U.S. citizens can sponsor spouses, minor children, and parents without numerical limitations. Under capped categories, U.S. citizens can also sponsor adult children and siblings; and legal permanent residents (LPRs) can sponsor spouses, minor children, and adult unmarried children. Thus, family-based immigration comprises about two-thirds of the annual total.
In many states, the income of immigrant families is not very different from that of non-immigrant families, though some individual earning is lower. This is because there are typically more workers per immigrant family. Although most immigrants are not poor, nationally 20 percent live below the poverty line, compared with 16 percent of native-born citizens. In 2017, there were 27.4 million children under age 18 living in low-income families (i.e., with family incomes below 200 percent of the federal poverty threshold). Of them, 8.8 million (or 32 percent) were children of immigrants.
Thirty-nine percent of immigrant workers are less likely to work in office and administrative support position and 31 percent less likely to work in management while 113 percent more are likely to work in construction. There are as many immigrants in white-collar jobs as in other occupations. In some state, over half of immigrants are in white-collar jobs. However, not all white-collar jobs are pay well. .
Firstly, the number of separated children in the USA should be examined.
Although there are insufficient data on the Internet to show us the numbers
of separated children in all the US states, we are still able to investigate
the problem from the data that we could obtain. In the graph below, we can see
that the southern part of the USA has more separated children than that in
the other states, especially in Texas.
As the southern part of the USA contains a lot of immigrates from Mexico or
some African countries, and a number of them are low-incomed, we can see that
the number of separated children is related to the immigration problem and the
income level. Children separating from families means they will become orphans
and unable to receive a completed childhood, and effecting their future development.
The RAISE Act, which stops U.S. citizens from sponsoring their children and siblings into the U.S. would only increases the number of childeren and family being seperated.
Secondly, the impact on jobs and economic growth. The figure below shows a sharp decline in legal immigration after the enactment of RAISE Act. As the number of immigrantion decreases rapidly, it also reduces employment because the domestic worker participation rate won’t increase enough to fill the jobs that would have been held by immigrants who are no longer allowed in the country.
It is predicted that in its first year, under the RAISE Act, the U.S. project 92,537 fewer jobs. After 10 years, job losses increase to 1.3 million relative to current law. By 2040, 4.6 million jobs are lost. The RAISE Act would reduce the number immigrants per year while increasing the portion of new immigrants that are highly skilled.
We project that the RAISE Act will lead to less economic growth and fewer jobs than otherwise. Job losses emerge because domestic workers will not fill all the jobs that immigrant workers would have filled. While in the short run the RAISE Act leads to a small boost to per capita GDP, in the long run per capita GDP dips slightly. Gains in average wages are positive but small.
Thirdly, decreasing family based immigrants meanwhile increasing the portion of professional immigrants could ease the financial burden of the U.S. government.
In 1965, the USA passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which greatly
increased the total number of the immigrants moving into the USA, especially from
Asia and Africa.
From the graph below, we can see that the healthcare expenditure had significantly
increased after the year of 1965, and even had increased five times in compare to
nowadays. This can easily be read as the immigrants increased the burden of the
government, and people might start to label or even discriminate the immigrants
as sponger to the USA. This could make the immigrants felt uncomfortable or even
difficult to blend in with society. The RAISE Act could decrease the government healthcare expenditure to some extent by decreasing the total number of family-based immigrants whom are the major dependency of low cost healthcare services.