When I worked for Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) during the last big debate over immigration reform, I was shocked to learn how completely broken and confusing the law is with regard to legal immigration programs.
There are very small niche programs that seem to have no basis in need. There is an E-3 Visa for Australian nationals who work in specialty occupations and an H1B-3 Visa for fashion models.
President Donald J. Trump announced his “four pillars” of immigration reform trading his idea to build a wall on the southern border for a solution to the Deferred Action for the Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. There are negotiations going on right now and these negotiations are bound by the four pillars mapped out by President Donald J. Trump at his January 30, 2018 State of the Union (SOTU) speech. The first two pillars deal with DACA and the wall, while the second two pillars address the issue of shifting immigration policy from a family to merit-based system.
The visa lottery program was President Trump’s first target. President Trump announced at the SOTU:
The third pillar ends the visa lottery — a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people. It is time to begin moving towards a merit-based immigration system — one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society, and who will love and respect our country.
The White House put out analysis where they concluded “each year, the diversity visa lottery program randomly selects up to 50,000 foreign nationals to apply for permanent residence (green cards) in the United States. Many of them have absolutely no ties to the United States, and are not required to have special skills or much education.” The White House considers this, and chain migration programs, to increase the threat to national security.
President Trump argued during the SOTU that visa programs that allow distant relatives to be brought into the country should be limited.
The fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. This vital reform is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security, and our future.
The White House also criticized chain migration as a program that makes America more susceptible to terrorism.
A recent joint report from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security found that roughly three in four individuals convicted of international terrorism-related charges since September 11, 2001, were foreign-born. As the report outlines, a number of these terrorists were able to enter the United States on the basis of family ties and extended-family chain migration.
The best way to shift from a family to merit-based is to embrace visa categories that make America a better place. There are five employment based immigration visa programs, but four of those programs will import workers that will compete with American workers for jobs. There is one “employment” program that imports foreign cash that both creates American jobs while investing in the infrastructure of the U.S. – the EB-5 visa program.
My former boss, Sen. Paul, introduced legislation in 2015 titled the “Invest in Our Communities Act.” That legislation permanently reauthorized the EB-5 regional center program, increased the visa numbers for this program, limited the opportunity to use this program for chain migration, and set the level of investment necessary to secure a visa at $500,000. If Congress is going to kill the visa lottery and limit chain migration, they are likely to allocate those visas to other programs. The EB-5 Visa is a program that does the opposite of the four other categories of employment based visas, because they increase, rather than suppress, American wages.
An expansion of these business visas will turbo charge and already expanding Trump economy. According to a report issued by the American Action Forum from January 24, 2018, the EB-5 business visa program lead to at least a $20 billion increase in U.S. economic output since 2008 and created over 174,000 American jobs in a two year span. According to a January 2017 report from the Department of Commerce, the EB-5 program created nearly 16 American jobs per EB-5 Visa investor. No other immigration visa program actually creates American jobs.
Our legal immigration system is in need of a tune up. It would be better to get away from lotteries and family-based programs and move towards programs that help America’s already thriving economy. High tech employment based visas are pushed by many to fill economic needs, yet the one visa that actually creates jobs is the EB-5 program that imports foreign money to be invested in the U.S. economy. It is unique program and one that will get America away from special visas for specific countries (I am thinking of that special Australian Visa category) and fashion models.
If, and when, a DACA deal is cut, it is important that President Trump’s call for an immigration system that both protects national security and makes America a better place is heeded.
Brian Darling is a former staffer for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and founder of the D.C. based firm Liberty Government Affairs.