President Trump embraced legislation on Wednesday that would place new limits on legal immigration and seek to create a system based more on merit and skills than family ties — news that’s adding to the anxiety a lot of immigrants already feel.
A Bronx woman who is fighting to help her husband get his green card called the proposed point-based system outrageous.
“He is nervous,” said Debbie Martinez of her husband, Roberto. “We have family. We have two kids together and we’ve been married for four years. Of course he has concerns about it.”
Martinez was at the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights in Inwood on Wednesday — the same day the president announced his support for the RAISE Act, a Senate-backed bill that could completely transform the U.S. immigration policy. If approved, the U.S. would use a point-based system to issue green cards; someone’s ability to speak English, as well as their education level and job skills, would all play a role in their eligibility.
A photo Martinez included in a stack of documents she’s preparing to send to the federal government shows her and Roberto in a Bronx park on the day they got married. She hopes the pile of documents will get Roberto his green card, but his future in the country is murkier after Wednesday’s announcement.
“I think it’s outrageous,” Martinez said. “A lot of countries, their education is limited, a lot of people just go up to the sixth grade. So they don’t have that opportunity.”
Cynthia Carrion, the deputy director of the Northern Manhattan Coalition for Immigrant Rights, said the bill “fails to understand how complex petitioning is already.”
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At this point the RAISE Act is just a proposal that Congress must pass, and there is talk that the legislation would have trouble getting through the Senate.
The legislation, heralded by Trump, as well as Sens. David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas, would replace the current process for obtaining legal permanent residency, or green cards, creating a skills-base point system for employment visas. The bill would also eliminate the preference for U.S. residents' extended and adult family members, while maintaining priority for their spouses and minor children.
The bill would also aim to slash the number of refugees in half and eliminate a program that provides visas to countries with low rates of immigration.
Cotton told reporters the bill would double the number of green cards available to high-skilled workers and would not affect other high or low-skilled worker visa programs such as H1-B and H2-B visas. The Trump Organization has asked for dozens of H-2B visas for foreign workers at two of Trump's private clubs in Florida, including his Mar-a-Lago resort.
The White House said that only 1 in 15 immigrants comes to the U.S. because of their skills, and the current system fails to place a priority on highly skilled immigrants. Trump said if approved the measure would represent "the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century."
The president has made cracking down on illegal immigration a hallmark of his administration and has tried to slash federal grants for cities that refuse to comply with federal efforts to detain and deport those living in the country illegally.
But he has also vowed to make changes to the legal immigration system, arguing that immigrants compete with Americans for much-needed jobs and drive wages down.
Most economists dispute the president's argument, noting that immigration in recent decades doesn't appear to have meaningfully hurt wages in the long run. Increased immigration is also associated with faster growth because the country is adding workers, so restricting the number of immigrants could slow the economy's potential to expand.
The bill's supporters, meanwhile, say it would make the U.S. more competitive, raise wages and create jobs.
"This legislation demonstrates our compassion for struggling American families who deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first and puts America first," Trump said during an event in the White House's Roosevelt Room.
