President Trump delivered a speech on December 18 outlining his National Security Strategy, a document required each year from the executive branch by Congress. Reiterating themes that won him the 2016 election, President Trump gave strong indications that immigration policy will be at the forefront of his Administration's efforts in 2018.
The recently released Yearbook of Immigration Statistics for 2016 shows us that family-based immigration is the main driver of admission numbers, and that Chain Migration was well over 250,000 in 2016. All together, admissions in Chain Migration extended family categories in 2016 were 307,197.
The new tax bill passed by Congress will eliminate the Additional Child Tax Credit that the IRS is now allowing some illegal aliens to receive. However, Congress missed an opportunity to enact a simple fix to make sure that individuals who are not living and working legally in the country are ineligible for refunds or tax relief.
The CBO just released its score of Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Dick Durbin's (D-Ill.) Dream Act of 2017 (S.1615). The CBO found that it would increase the federal budget deficit by $25.9 billion over the next ten years, if enacted.
Despite the insistence of Big Ag that its only choice besides hiring illegal workers and paying them below-poverty wages is a new guest program that harms American workers and exploits foreign ones. That's not true.
What is the Visa Lottery? It is a program that every year awards 50,000 immigrant visas (and lifetime work permits) to individuals living in eligible countries who are fortunate enough to be chosen in a random drawing. President Trump has called for its termination, as well as an end to chain migration.
According to Politico, unless the U.S. continues to bring in low-wage workers from abroad, there will no one to care for aging Baby Boomers because "there are reason's to assume" Americans won't be taking those jobs. The reasons for that assumption are not convincing, and the article's writer inadvertently makes a compelling case for how to improve wages and working condition for home health care workers.
Opinion journalist Reuben Navarrette, Jr. recently made the claim that the RAISE Act would prevent U.S. farmers from employing crop workers. Anyone familiar with the bill knows that it focuses solely on how the federal government issues immigrant visas, and agribusiness will continue to have access to an unlimited supply of agricultural guest workers under the H-2A program.
Former Congressman Tom Tancredo penned an open letter to Pope Francis this week, urging the Pontiff to concentrate on the generosity of the American people, who welcome in more immigrants than any other nation, and to defend the right of Americans to implement immigration laws beneficial to the common good of the citizenry.
Candidate Trump promised to end the illegal and unconstitutional DACA program on "day one" of his Administration. He failed to keep that promise. There is talk in Congress of a new version of the DREAM Act to reward DACA recipients a formal amnesty. The President must decide where lie his priorities. With the American people and the U.S. Constitution, or with the D.C. special interests who are cynically attempting to play to people's sympathies in order to prevent genuine reform of the immigration system?