Republicans balk at Trump's cuts to legal immigration

[DonViejo]

Source: Politico




The president’s proposal is running into sharp opposition from key figures in his own party, complicating chances of a deal to protect Dreamers.

By SEUNG MIN KIM 01/30/2018 03:11 PM EST Updated 01/30/2018 03:36 PM EST

It’s no surprise that Democrats have panned the White House’s immigration framework. But now Republicans are increasingly uncomfortable with President Donald Trump’s proposal to deeply cut legal immigration in exchange for protecting nearly two million Dreamers.

The barebones framework released late last week, which Trump is expected to promote during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, would fundamentally reshape the nation’s immigration system by no longer allowing U.S. citizens to sponsor parents, adult children and siblings for green cards — amounting to the biggest proposed reduction in legal immigration in decades, experts say. That idea, at least in concept, isn’t sitting well with many Republicans.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said while the overall plan from Trump was “credible,” he would not support such significant cuts to the legal immigration side.

“The idea of cutting legal immigration in half and skewing the green cards to one area of the economy, I think, is bad for the economy,” Graham said, referring to the administration’s broad pitch to shift to a merit-based immigration system. “Not a whole lot of support for that. I want more legal immigration, not less.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/30/trump-legal-immigration-republicans-378041

[iluvtennis]

1. BTW, Dems were outraged at this Trump proposal as well. They need to go back to

the Durbin bill

[BigmanPigman]

2. Over the weekend I heard the explanation about this

and I actually understood it (rare). The guest on MSNBC said that the "deal" is good for the Dreamers but the large legal immigrants will be effected the most over 10 years. He said this is clearly racist since in the current wave most of the immigrants are brown and from Mexico while in the past they were white and from Ireland, Germany, Italy and Asia. He also said that not only is our country based on immigration (how many Native Americans do you see throughout the country???) but our country's population is aging and we need immigrants to work and contribute money, etc. to the country as a whole.