You RAISE Me Up

With the North Korean standoff and the Charlottesville chaos making all the headlines in recent weeks, the media has had little time to cover the Reform American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) act.  Introduced by freshmen Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA), this bill would dramatically change America’s immigration policy.  President Trump, whose tough talk on immigration helped him beat 16 other Republicans and Hillary Clinton, announced his support for the bill earlier this month.  It would cut the number of green cards issued per year in half, place a cap on the number of refugee admissions per year and end the visa diversity lottery.  Under the RAISE act, America’s legal immigration policy would much closely mirror Australia’s immigration policy; which prioritizes higher-skilled English speaking immigrants over lower-skilled, non-English speaking immigrants.      

 

 

Not surprisingly, it didn’t take very long for left-wingers to start throwing accusations of racism at the President and the bill’s supporters.  CNN White House Correspondent Jim Acosta accused the Trump Administration of “trying to engineer a racial and ethnic flow of people into this country.”  No, that’s what the Democrats have been doing for the past fifty years.  Acosta continued his back-and-forth with White House Policy Adviser Stephen Miller, suggesting that the proposed change in immigration would only allow people from Great Britain and Australia to immigrate to the country.  Apparently, he fails to realize that students in Non-English speaking countries study English as a foreign language the same way American students study Spanish and French as foreign languages.  Miller called out Acosta for his “cosmopolitan bias.”  Acosta has become to President Trump what Sam Donaldson was to President Reagan.  Later that Day, Acosta made an appearance on “The Situation Room” where he complained that the President always goes after the three “Ms”; Mexicans, Muslims, and the media.  This is quite a change of pace from the Obama Administration, which blamed all of its problems on the three “Cs”; Christians, cops, and capitalists.   

 

It appears as if the RAISE act is not the “comprehensive immigration reform” bill the left and many on the right were looking for.  The left has benefitted smashingly from the immigration status quo.  An endless flow of third-world immigrants into the country allows the Democrats to make up for their loss in the Demographic war.  As Ann Coulter pointed out, “Christians have lots of children and adopt lots of children; Liberals abort children and encourage the gay lifestyle in anyone with a flair for color.”  Fifty years after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act, California, the nation’s most populous state, has become a “no-go zone” for Republicans.  Yet many Republicans still support the immigration status quo because they would hate to alienate their beloved donors at the Chamber of Commerce; who really enjoy exploiting all the cheap labor flowing in from the southern border.  That would explain why the bill has not attracted any more cosponsors since its introduction three weeks ago.  The forces in the swamp, on both the left and the right, will do everything in their power to ensure that the RAISE act does not make its way to the President’s desk.   

 

Under the RAISE act, an “immigration points system” will replace our current “employment-based immigration categories.”  Applicants will receive “points” based on a variety of factors including their age, education level, and English language proficiency.  The RAISE act would prioritize applicants with college degrees in the in-demand STEM field.  In addition, the RAISE act would also prevent new arrivals from using Federal means-tested public benefits for their first five years in the country. President Trump had previously suggested this idea at one of his famous campaign-style rallies in June.  In order to be considered for placement in the eligible applicant pool, applicants must accrue a minimum of 30 points.  The RAISE Act wants to ensure that all immigrants coming into our country have what it takes to achieve success in America.  The 40-page RAISE act provides a refreshing contrast to the 1,100+ page “Gang of Eight” bill that passed the Senate four years ago.  While the RAISE act is quite different from the recent immigration reform proposals brought before Congress, it is hardly a new idea.          

 

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign season, Numbers USA ran an ad highlighting the recommendations of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration, led by Democrat Barbara Jordan; who read the following statement at the 1995 National Conference of United We Stand America:  “The commission finds no national interest in continuing to import lesser-skilled and unskilled workers to compete in the most vulnerable parts of our labor force.  Many American workers do not have adequate job prospects.  We should make their task easier to find employment, not harder.”  Jordan also stated “It is both a right and a responsibility to manage immigration so it serves the national interest.” The Jordan commission called for cutting legal immigration in half, as does the RAISE act.  Obviously, the Washington establishment did not take the advice of the Commission.  As a result, working-class Americans have had to suffer the economic and social consequences of our immigration policy for twenty more years as progressives call anyone who wants to change our immigration policy a racist.

 

Should the RAISE Act manage to become law, many of the problems plaguing our nation will begin to disappear.  The reduced supply of low-wage workers will allow the minimum wage to rise naturally.  Also, fewer immigrant families arriving to take advantage of our social services will pave the way for much-needed and long-overdue entitlement reform.  By addressing the out-of-control spending on the always-increasing list of entitlement programs, we can take the first steps toward reigning in our $20 trillion debt.  The RAISE Act will not solve all of the country’s problems, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

 

President Trump owes Senators Cotton and Perdue a huge thank you; as they have introduced a bill that reflects his “America First” agenda.  While we certainly feel bad for less fortunate people living in third world countries, a nation-state must first take care of its own poor before it can accommodate poor people from other nations.  The RAISE Act, along with the Border wall, will allow The United States of America to experience economic growth on a scale that it has not seen since before the great recession.  It is a foregone conclusion that most, if not all Congressional Democrats, will not get behind the RAISE Act.  Therefore, this piece of legislation will require near-unanimous support from Congressional Republicans to pass.  To all my readers with Republican Senators and/or Congressmen, remind them that they do not work for the Chamber of Commerce; they work for the American people.  Tell them to support the RAISE Act!