Thread: Cotton and Trump plot crackdown on legal immigration

Cotton and Trump plot crackdown on legal immigration

The push could trigger a fight between the business and populist wings of the GOP.

By Seung Min Kim
02/07/17 05:04 AM EST

Overlooked in Donald Trump’s campaign crusade against illegal immigration was his vow to crack down on legal immigration, too.

Now, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a reliable Trump ally, is taking steps to execute that part of the president’s immigration vision — and it could provoke a showdown between two competing ends of the GOP: the working-class populists led by Trump and the establishment Chamber of Commerce wing.

The outspoken, 39-year-old Cotton has written the first in what may be a series of bills to revamp the nation’s immigration system. Cotton will start off with legislation being unveiled Tuesday that will dramatically slash the number of immigrants who can obtain green cards and other visas every year.

The conservative rising star is poised to step into the role being vacated in the chamber by Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), who has long preached the economic virtues of restricting legal immigration in favor of U.S. citizens — a view disputed by business-friendly Republicans who have pushed for a more expansionist immigration policy. Sessions is set to be confirmed as attorney general this week.

"Donald Trump was the only one who saw that most Americans don’t like our current immigration system,” Cotton said in an interview with POLITICO on Monday. “This is just the area of politics where I think leaders and elites are most disconnected from the people. Not just Republicans but in both parties, in business, in the media, in the academy, culture and so forth."

The Arkansas senator has already spoken with Trump and key White House officials about his immigration proposals, and says the administration has been receptive. And Cotton dismisses research that shows the economic boon of immigrants, including low-skilled workers, by paraphrasing George Orwell: “Only an intellectual could believe something so stupid.”

Cotton’s new legislation, being formally proposed Tuesday with Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and detailed exclusively with POLITICO in advance of its release, swings an axe at the nation’s green-card system by eliminating several avenues for U.S. citizens and permanent residents to sponsor family members for green cards.

Right now, U.S. citizens and permanent residents can sponsor a variety of family members, including spouses, parents, siblings and married adult children. Cotton and Perdue’s plan would allow only spouses and unmarried minor children to get green cards, although they would permit visas for aging adult parents whose American children are their caretakers — a population Cotton expects will be modest.

The bill also dumps the diversity visa lottery, which allots about 50,000 visas per year for citizens of countries that traditionally have low rates of immigration to the United States. And it would limit refugees to 50,000 annually — in line with levels outlined in Trump’s controversial executive order.

"Sen. Cotton and I are taking action to fix the shortcomings in our legal immigration system," Perdue said. "Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages."

All told, the number of legal immigrants allowed into the United States under the bill — named the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act — would plummet by 40 percent in the first year and by 50 percent over a decade, according to analysis by Cotton’s aides.

Advocates of reduced immigration are delighted.

"With the introduction of this bill, Sen. Cotton has made it clear that he's stepping not necessarily into the shoes, but onto the platform where Sessions' shoes have been," said Roy Beck, the president of NumbersUSA, which calls for less immigration. "This is beyond anything that Sen. Sessions ever did."

Cotton says his legislation is the first step in revamping the current immigration system from one based on family ties toward a more skills-oriented one, a move that Republicans generally support. But the intraparty collision comes with Cotton’s push to tighten the number of low-skilled foreign workers into the country.

“For too long, our immigration policy has skewed toward the interests of the wealthy and powerful: Employers get cheaper labor, and professionals get cheaper personal services like housekeeping,” Cotton wrote in a December New York Times op-ed. “We now need an immigration policy that focuses less on the most powerful and more on everyone else.”

His arguments, however, run counter to research that show immigrants are a net boon to the economy, from the high-skilled foreigners coveted by the tech industry to employees who work at hotels, restaurants and in agriculture. The so-called Gang of Eight bill passed by the Senate in 2013 crafted a new “W” visa program that would allow up to 200,000 low-skilled guest workers in the country per year.

“Economists overwhelmingly think that immigration is good for the economy. That’s not just true at the high-skilled, but low-skilled level,” said Jeremy Robbins, the executive director of the Partnership for a New American Economy, the pro-reform group led by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Robbins, who regularly meets with GOP lawmakers, added: “There is overwhelming support in Congress for the idea of immigration as an economic driver, including in the Republican conference.”

But arguments from the other end of the Republican Party are rising in potency, particularly with Trump in the White House, which has put out a flurry of executive actions in his first two weeks in office. The Trump administration is also entertaining new orders to curb legal immigration programs such as the H-1B visa prized by the tech industry.

Cotton didn’t address employment-based green cards or related visas in his latest measure, noting that the laws governing those issues are more complicated and “touch more entrenched interests.” He also declined to say directly whether he is open to expanding the pool of 85,000 H-1B visas allotted per year.

“There are obviously abuses of the H-1B visa program. I think those abuses need to be addressed before we even consider expanding the program,” Cotton said. “That said, if the evidence demonstrates that say, software companies need PhDs with computer science degrees and they’re going to pay them a wage that’s in the top 1, top 5, top 10 percent of local wages, I’m open to that kind of evidence.”

Mark Krikorian, whose Center for Immigration Studies supports restricting the number of immigrants here, says Cotton has been a rarity among Republicans in that he consistently raised issues surrounding legal immigration in addition to the more oft-discussed debate over illegal immigration.

“He’s relatively young, he’s a rock star among lots of conservatives, combat veteran, the whole thing,” Krikorian said. “And so for him to be the one to carry the standard of immigration reduction really does give it legitimacy.”

The prospects of a full-blown immigration debate such as the one that consumed Congress four years ago appear unlikely, for now. But Cotton said if Trump calls on lawmakers to advance immigration legislation, such as a security and enforcement bill, that could be an opportunity to put forward his plan.

Cotton’s allies extend beyond the White House, to the Justice Department — where Sessions will be able to wield significant power over immigration in his new job.

“There’s only one Jeff Sessions. He’s not replaceable,” Cotton said during the POLITICO interview. “But Sen. Sessions correctly realized that most Americans want immigration levels at most, to stay the same, and more likely, to decrease because it does have a negative impact on jobs and wages.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/0...-cotton-234706

They need to stop Student Visa's for an extended period of time. Our schools are overcrowded, need an overhaul and put OUR students first.

Many of these foreign students do not go back to their country of origin and take jobs away from our graduates.

Cotton and Trump are attacking "chain migration" and the "visa lottery".

OUTSTANDING!!

Long-overdue. Thank you NumbersUSA, thank you Center for Immigration Studies, thank you Jeff Sessions, thank you Tom Cotton, thank you President Trump and THANK YOU ALIPACERS!!!!!

While our main focus here has been against illegal immigration, our organization has spoken up and out loud and clear against the massive excessive immigration into the United States both legal and illegal and it looks like and sounds like the people who have listened, read and heard us are taking action to fix this travesty.

I would also like to mention to our "business" people. Do you realize that when you steal high-skilled and well-educated people from other countries that you are robbing the futures and well-beings of those nations who need their engineers, scientists, doctors, chemists, physicists and IT people? Yes, those countries need their brain trust. And yes, their families need their loved ones with them in their country, not over here making you money at the dire detriment of their families and homeland.

You're thieves robbing other nations and you're traitors looking to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. If you want to hire foreign workers, go there and hire them in their own country, just don't expect to backhaul the products you make there into the United States. If you want to help build their countries, have at it, we've always encouraged that, but not to supply the US with products that would have otherwise been made here by American workers.

It's really hard to fathom that a "business class" of smart asses like so many of you could display such stupidity when it comes to immigration issues.

It's appalling, really.

Originally Posted by Beezer

They need to stop Student Visa's for an extended period of time. Our schools are overcrowded, need an overhaul and put OUR students first.

Many of these foreign students do not go back to their country of origin and take jobs away from our graduates.

Any school who denies any American student with an B average a seat in college or university in favor of a foreign student should lose all federal funding and or tax-exempt status.

And yes, the number of student visas is OUTRAGEOUS and needs to be cut by at least 90% this year. I have no problem with a "semester or 1 year study abroad" on an exchange program, but full-time 4 year admissions into our colleges and universities must be stopped as well as masters and doctorate programs. We can not educate our own kids when they are in competition with the world. That is just totally unfair, unreasonable, and a deliberate attempt by colleges, universities and others to degrade our own population. It's wrong, wrong, wrong! And it must END, END, END.

Which Side Is Donald Trump on in the Fight Over Legal Immigration?

Feb 7 2017, 11:18 am ET
by Benjy Sarlin

President Donald Trump is best known for his stance against illegal immigration, but activists are gearing up for a broader ideological fight over whether legal immigrants and foreign workers benefit the country.

Experts are poring over two purportedly leaked draft memos, obtained by The Washington Post and Vox, one that would call for stricter rules targeting low-income immigrants who use federal benefits and another that potentially could create new rules related to worker visas.

The language in both is in line with Trump's more nativist supporters, and it includes directions to gather and publicize data on any potential harm immigrants and visa programs might do to American workers.

NBC News could not independently verify their authenticity, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment, but the content of the memos is emblematic of a broader shift within the GOP from a relative consensus among lawmakers that immigrants have been a boon to the economy and a symbol of the American dream to a more pessimistic view that includes prominent calls for reducing overall immigration levels.

On Tuesday, Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA), both of whom have been supportive of Trump, are introducing the RAISE Act, which would cut the number of family-based green cards issued each year in half, from about 1,000,000 to 500,000.

Lynn Tramonte, deputy director of the pro-immigration group America's Voice, told NBC News that her group is "very concerned about additional restrictions on legal immigration, as it's all of a piece, coming from the same dark place."

"They're layering in all these policies to restrict immigration every way it happens," Tramonte said.

For Trump, the issue of whether to seek an overall reduction in legal immigration and worker visas places him uncomfortably between two groups that have had an outsized role in shaping his agenda.

On one hand, his inner circle of nationalist advisers is intensely committed to a view that immigrants take native-born jobs, depress wages and fail to assimilate under current policies.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, Trump's nominee for attorney general, is one of the party's most prominent immigration skeptics, and his like-minded former spokesman, Stephen Miller, is an adviser and speechwriter to the president.

Breitbart, the pro-Trump media outlet that White House adviser Steve Bannon ran before joining Trump's presidential campaign, has regularly reported on alleged visa abuses and conducted its own polling to demonstrate support for a "total revolution against mass immigration."

Bannon, who now serves as a top White House adviser, complained to Trump in a 2015 Breitbart interview that too many Silicon Valley chief executives were Asian, which he suggested could undermine "civic society." In 2016, Bannon told Miller that legal immigration — not illegal — was "the beating heart" of America's economic woes.

On the other hand, Trump's friends in the business community have argued that the United States needs to mine more talent from abroad and bring in younger workers as the native-born population ages in order to boost the economy. Industry groups have long pushed for an increase in the number of H-1B visas available, which is currently capped at 85,000 a year — far fewer than the number of applications.

This pro-immigration wing includes Trump's nominee to run the Labor Department, CKE Restaurants Chief Executive Andy Puzder, who would be responsible for enforcing work standards at businesses that employee foreign workers.

"The best way to protect American workers is to generate economic growth," Puzder wrote in The Wall Street Journal last year. "This is not synonymous with aggressively restricting immigration."

Trump's public statements have put him in both camps at different points, making it unclear where he might come down as president.

When Bannon raised his objections to immigrant entrepreneurs, for example, Trump pushed back and said he favored allowing skilled students who went to school in America to stay after they graduate.

During the presidential race, Trump's campaign put out Sessions-like policy papers sharply criticizing H-1B visas, only to watch the candidate frequently contradict them when the topic came up.

In a CNBC debate in October 2015, Trump denied criticizing Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg for calling for more H-1B visas (the quote was from Trump's own website), and said he was "all in favor of keeping these talented people here so they can go to work in Silicon Valley."

In a Fox News debate last March, Trump was asked to explain the contradiction and responded that he was "changing" his official stance and that "we need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can't do it, we'll get them in."

The campaign said afterward that he was confused, and at a CNN debate later that month, he said he opposed H-1B visas as "very, very bad for workers" and would call for a pause to examine them.

Trump's sympathy with business leaders came from personal experience. He applied for H-2A visas to bring in seasonal workers at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and other Trump properties, and he complained in the March Fox debate it was "very, very hard" to find Americans to do those jobs. In speeches, he often promised a "big beautiful door" for legal immigrants to go with his wall.

Limits on green cards and visas are set by Congress, but experts on both sides of the debate believe Trump has options to slow or reduce immigration at the margins. Trump's executive order restricting travel from seven majority Muslim countries initially blocked green card holders before the White House clarified that that they would be allowed to enter the country.

Take the two draft orders published in Vox.

The order on green cards drew attention for its call to deport immigrants who spend more than five years on federal benefits, but the government is already allowed to deport people who become "public charges" or bar them from entry if it believes they're likely to become a public charge. These rules are difficult to enforce once people enter the country, however, and immigrants don't qualify for many federal benefits for at least five years.

Where it could make potentially make a bigger impact, however, is by slowing or stopping future applications by expanding the definition of what counts as a "public charge" to include programs like Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program, which currently don't count.

"It's significant," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies and a supporter of lower immigration levels. "The public charge requirements in the law have been ignored [and] defined away for years and need to be restored."

Randy Capps, a researcher at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, told NBC News that changes in how officials determine "public charge" requirements "could have a big impact on future legal immigrants," depending on how they were ultimately worded.

When it comes to work visas, Trump could scale back the length of Optional Practical Training visas, which let students stay for a period after graduation while they look for jobs that would let them obtain H-1B visas.

Trump could also reverse an order by President Barack Obama to extend work authorization to spouses of H-1B workers. The leaked order also calls for stricter oversight of L-1 visas, which companies use to transfer workers from offices overseas.

Some experts wondered whether Trump might extend national security restrictions on travel to countries beyond the initial seven he named last week. Doing so would create more disruption, however, especially if it included countries that do more business with the United States and have larger immigrant communities.

White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said on NBC's "Meet The Press" last week that "perhaps other countries need to be added going forward."

Many of these changes would have to go through a long regulatory process and, like Trump's earlier executive orders, could face litigation.

But there also may be some bipartisan room to address at least some concerns raised by Trump, who has said since winning that he wants to crack down on "abuses of visa programs."

A number of bills in Congress from members of both parties propose changes to the H-1B program, including adding requirements that employers search for Americans to fill slots first and that they prioritize higher-income applicants to make it harder to undercut local wages.

Labor unions have long complained that the current system needs reform to prevent large outsourcing firms from snatching up visas and paying below-market wages, a practice that's drawn increased scrutiny in recent years.

As for a broader overhaul of the immigration system, there is also some support in both parties for changes that would give greater priority to immigrants with relevant job skills over those with family ties. The "Gang of Eight bill," an immigration reform measure that passed the Senate in 2013 before dying in the House, included some steps in this direction.

Major legislation is unlikely, however, as Democrats are reluctant to negotiate on a bill that would not also include a path to legal status for undocumented immigrants. Trump and lawmakers in both parties would also have to resolve the fierce internal debate over whether a new system should expand overall immigration or contract it.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/whit...ration-n717371

Perdue, Cotton File RAISE Act to Reform Outdated Immigration System, Protect American Workers, Boost Wages



by NEIL W. MCCABE
7 Feb 2017
Capitol Hill
754 comments

Two Republican senators took up the baton for populist immigration reform Tuesday when they announced their Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment, or RAISE Act, designed to raise wages for ordinary Americans, restore legacy immigration levels, and reset family and worker visa programs.

“We are taking action to fix some of the shortcomings in our legal immigration system—returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages,” said Georgia’s Sen. David A. Perdue Jr., who served on the chamber’s Judiciary Committee and was one the first and foremost Senate supporters of President Donald J. Trump’s campaign. Purdue was joined by Arkansas Sen. Thomas B. Cotton, his co-sponsor.

“This is a first step,” Perdue said. “It is not a sweeping, comprehensive attempt to solve all legal immigration problems, nor does it address illegal issues. We are simply trying today to bring a rational, compassionate approach to this issue inside the immigration conversation.”

The bill is not a rejection of immigration, which is an important part of the country’s heritage, he said. “But, we see the records and we see the data and we see wages being absolutely depressed because of the supply of low-skilled workers.”

A Capitol Hill source close to Perdue told Breitbart News that the senator is motivated by the president’s attention to the immigration crisis, especially when it comes to eliminating the so-called “diversity lottery” visa program and other outdated programs.

Cotton said he spoke to the president about the general outlines of the bill during the campaign and that morning.

While he would not say that Trump endorsed the bill, he was clear that it is in line with the president’s priorities, and he and Perdue have an ongoing partnership with the White House staff.

The Army Ranger veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq said his bill with Perdue takes the number of legal immigrants from million to 500,000 per year without addressing the employment-based immigration programs.

Cotton said this bill makes it a simple matter of supply and demand.

“There has been a generation’s-long decline in blue collar wages,” he said. “The natural effect of having low-skills and no-skills workers in this country is going to be a tighter labor market that is going to put more upward pressure on wages of working folks.”

The RAISE Act shuts chain-migration, so siblings, parents, and other members of a legal immigrant’s extended family are no longer automatically waved into the country, he said. However, the bill does allow for temporary visas for elderly parents, who are not coming to America to work or go on public assistance.

Cotton had to repeatedly tell reporters that the bill is designed to primarily help American. “Our immigration system should focus on what is good for American citizens–and if parents and siblings or adult children or their spouses have the skills that they need to succeed in our economy and contribute, then they can come in through other employment-based programs.”

Cotton said the bill is focused on the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act that remains the country’s framework. “We are looking for a more rational system.”

The Arkansas senator said that the immigration laws between 1924 and 1965 were too restrictive and there was a need in 1965 to open things up, especially given the record of America’s handling a refugees in the 1920s and 1930s.

“Overall, you will see a reduction in the number of immigrants, but you may see an increase in other categories, where there is an empirical and demonstrated need for more immigrant labor–particularly among the skilled and the ultra-high skilled,” he said.

Watch the Perdue-Cotton press conference here:



http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...workers-wages/

Originally Posted by Beezer

They need to stop Student Visa's for an extended period of time. Our schools are overcrowded, need an overhaul and put OUR students first.

Many of these foreign students do not go back to their country of origin and take jobs away from our graduates.

We need to disable student visas as a path to immigration. Student visas should benefit the country of origin of visiting students and so students here on student visas should expect to seek employment in their country of origin and pursue education with that goal in mind.