Immigration Reform News 2017: Sen. Flake Targets Trump's Immigration Reform Issue
Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake is known to be one of U.S. President Donald Trump's most vocal critics in the Congress. Now, he is voicing out his opinion once again on the president, targeting the biggest issue that Trump has created, which is immigration.
According to Washington Times, the United States of America has an estimated number of 45 million immigrants and welcomes 1.5 million of them per year. About a quarter of the total number of immigrants are reportedly illegal.
Sen. Flake recently wrote a New York Times opinion editorial against the current president of the United States, discussing his opposition to the president's proposal to limit legal immigration and to create a merit-based system.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
He opened it with a quote that Trump himself said: "When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best."
Being one who has seen a Mexican immigrant's work first hand, he rebutted the president's statement as he wrote that the man has never met Manuel Chaidez, a man who illegally immigrated to the U.S. when he was only 16 years old and worked on Flake family's ranch.
The Senator praised Chaidez dedication, work ethics, and character, even comparing the immigrant's work to that of his high school friends, whom his father used to hire occasionally to help out on the farm. According to Flake, Manuel always did a better job than everyone else.
Flake remembered the important role Chaidez, the illegal immigrant, played on the family ranch, saying that "without such work there is no ranch. Without ranches, my town and towns like it falter. And so in my estimation, Manuel is just about the highest-value immigrant possible, and if we forget that, then we forget something elemental about America."
Chaidez also was not able to finish high school, nor did he speak the English language fluently. Having revealed this, Flake continued on to directly opposing the President's proposal to limit immigration only to "high-skilled" immigrants.
"When re-evaluating immigration policy, it is right to give priority, through a point system or otherwise, to those who have skills and abilities unique to the new economy," Flake added.
"We did this in 2013, in the bipartisan immigration bill that passed the Senate. But there must always be a place in America for those whose only initial credentials are a strong back and an eagerness to use it."
He ended his write-up saying that America would be a lesser country without hardworking immigrants like Chaidez.
