When I wrote yesterday's post, the part about the proposed Trump immigration plan, I thought the brief summary I included just sounded too rosy. I mean, it sounded like it would be worth giving him money for the wall just to get the other parts.
It was too rosy. Somehow the down side wasn't really spelled out enough. So here's what else is involved.
By eliminating the diversity lottery, and the family-sponsored immigration -- and somewhere in the shift to merit-based selection -- the number of immigrants permitted drops to about half.
It puts sharp restrictions and limits on the so-called "chain migration," meaning the advantage that family members of legal immigrants have. That is, it has been that a person who is admitted legally then is sometimes able to help close relatives (parents, siblings, grandparents) also immigrate. It's a big no-no for his base, and Trump's plan puts strong limits on it.
So the Trump plan essentially is rather callous about breaking up families. Or it puts people in the position of choosing between America and their family.
Another thing I don't get about this merit-based plan (which emphasizes high level of education and technical expertise) is this: a large number of immigrants work in farm labor and hotel service and landscaping jobs, all of which we need. None of those require much education. Do they mean to curtail immigrants who will take those jobs in a merit-based system?
As I wrote yesterday, shifting from a "their needs" immigration system to an "our needs" system -- from a humanitarian motive to a greedy America-first motive -- is abandoning one of our core American values.
Ralph
PS: Just ran across an opinion piece by Juan Escalante on HuffPost. Here's a sample:
"As the White House's senior advisor for policy, Stephen Miller seems to have one goal: to take a wreaking ball to the Statue of Liberty and shove the remains into the Upper New York Bay. . . .
[In an earlier press conference, when asked about our commitment to 'the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to be free,' Miller hardly concealed his sneer as he pointed out that that Emma Lazarus poem on a plaque was attached to the Statue of Liberty years later; it's not part of the original concept.]
"Which brings us to this moment, when the White House is preparing to erode America's reputation as a nation of immigrants and replace it with toxic immigration policy, which it has disguised as a way to save young undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children known as 'Dreamers.' . . .
"On Monday, you will hear White House officials present their outline as nothing short of a heroic attempt to reform our nation's broken immigration system. Do not be fooled. What the White House is selling the American people is nothing but a nativist wish list that would reduce the number of immigrants, especially people of color born in countries that Trump considers 'shitholes.'"
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