Immigration Reform: Donald Trump's Aides Work with GOP Senators to Cut Legal Immigration in Half?
U.S. President Donald Trump is reportedly working with some of his supporters to cut down legal immigration to fulfill one of his major campaign promises.
According to reports, Trump and his advisors are secretly working with GOP senators David Perdue of Georgia and Tom Cotton of Arkansas to come up with a bill that can start a major legal immigration cut in the country.
It is said that both senators are working secretly with senior White House official Stephen Miller and Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon.
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Reports claim that if the bill will be signed into a law, it could lessen the number of legal immigrants that could enter the U.S. by half in 2027. At the moment, around 1 million immigrants reportedly enter the country legally. This means that by the time the law takes effect, the legal immigrant statistics will be limited to 500,000 during the next decade.
Sen. Cotton's spokesperson Caroline Rabbitt explained why he is supporting a major legal immigration cut.
"Sen. Cotton knows that being more deliberate about who we let into our country will raise working-class wages, which is why an overwhelming majority of Americans support it," Rabbitt stated. "He and Sen. Perdue are working with President Trump to fix our immigration system so that instead of undercutting American workers, it will support them and their livelihoods."
While the bill that will cut the number of legal immigration is still being conceptualized, Trump's administration recently delayed the rule that was passed by former President Barack Obama that allows foreign entrepreneurs to reside in the U.S. to build their start-up business using the "start-up visa."
The International Entrepreneurship Rule that was approved by the Obama administration was supposed to take effect on Monday, July 17. But the Department of Homeland Security released a memo on Monday declaring the delay of the rule's effectivity to March 14, 2018.
This reportedly earned negative reactions from different start-up investors and organizations.
"Today's announcement is extremely disappointing and represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the critical role immigrant entrepreneurs play in growing the next generation of American companies," National Venture Capital Association president and CEO Bobby Franklin said in a statement.
