On Tuesday U.S. Senator David Perdue along with Arkansas’ Sen. Tom Cotton introduced the RAISE Act, an immigration reform bill which seeks to return legal immigration to historical levels. The bill would help working class Americans who have been squeezed in recent years by the flood of immigrants into the county.
Said Perdue, “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.”
Read more about the bill and see Perdue and Cotton’s press conference below.
The RAISE Act would:
- Prioritize Immediate Family Households. The RAISE Act would retain immigration preferences for the spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents while eliminating preferences for certain categories of extended and adult family members.
- Eliminate Outdated Diversity Visa Lottery. The Diversity Lottery is plagued with fraud, advances no economic or humanitarian interest, and does not even deliver the diversity of its namesake. The RAISE Act would eliminate the 50,000 visas arbitrarily allocated to this lottery.
- Place Responsible Limit on Permanent Residency for Refugees. The RAISE Act would limit refugees offered permanent residency to 50,000 per year, in line with a 13-year average.