Shocking news to Immigrants in US

Washington, February 9: One more shocking news to foreigners(green card holders), Already many of them are suffered from US President Donald Trump's travel ban decision about H1B Visas.

Now, US Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. has been introduced a bill meant to reduce legal immigration levels by 50%, which he said would increase wages earned by American workers.



It is biggest shock to the members, who have many hopes and also awaiting to apply for the Green Cards.

According to Cotton’s office, the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act would reduce overall legal immigrants to 637,960 in its first year and to 539,958 by its tenth year, compared to 1,051,031 immigrants in 2015.

Cotton introduced the bill along with U.S. Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga. In the press conference, Cotton said the country has seen a significant increase in immigration during the past 40 years – 1 million immigrants per year over the past 25 years, which is above the historical norm.

Only one out of every 15 legal immigrants is coming for unemployment reasons. Meanwhile, they are being given visas without considering the workforce’s needs.

The bill proposes only spouses and minor children of permanent residents could apply for green cards, bringing the number of immigrants allowed to live in the US each year to 500,000 from 1 million.

A diversity visa lottery which grants visas to 50,000 immigrants would also be eliminated. The bill does not affect H1B visa holders.

The RAISE Act contains three provisions that Cotton said would "rebalance the system toward merit-based immigration," like those operated by Canada and Australia. He said the system should reward skills, language ability and demonstrated economic potential.

Finally, the RAISE Act would limit the number of refugees offered permanent residency to 50,000 annually, which is consistent with the 13-year average.

Cotton said the bill is targeted to those goals rather than broader immigration reform.

He said he had discussed the bill as a concept with President Donald Trump in a meeting and during the fall and said Trump supports creating a merit-based system. He said the U.S. system would still be among the world’s most generous and open.