Posted on 11/24/2018 8:48:52 AM PST by Kaslin
President Trump wants to reform immigration to be based on merit, rather than lotteries, anchor babies, and chains of poor, unskilled, uneducated relatives, all with their hands out asking for public assistance from American taxpayers. Merit means immigration based on what the immigrant can bring to, rather than take from, America.
President John F. Kennedy, the last great Democrat, articulated the policy well in his 1961 Inaugural address, when he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.” Trump’s vision is to apply this principle to those who are seeking to emigrate to America.
There is one immigration provision that already follows Trump’s merit-based immigration vision, the EB-5 visa program. That provision of current law provides 10,000 visas a year to foreign investors who are willing to invest half a million in state designated distressed areas creating at least 10 new jobs for American workers, or $1 million creating jobs anywhere in America.
Instead of letting waves of unskilled, uneducated poor foreigners in to compete with domestic American workers, driving their wages down, the EB-5 visa program would let in waves of investment capital to hire domestic American workers, bidding their wages up. That follows perfectly Trump’s vision to Make America Great Again.
But on his way out the door, anti-business President Obama tried to sabotage the EB-5 visa program, proposing regulations in January 2017 to increase the minimum required investment for the visas. Even immigrants with a million dollars to invest in America couldn’t qualify for entry into the United States. True to form, Obama preferred entry for unskilled, uneducated, immigrants without much to contribute to America.
That is the fundamental problem of the socialist Democrats today, who don’t understand how to create jobs and rising wages, unlike President Kennedy who created a jobs and wages boom in the 1960s. SenatorsRand Paul (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote a letter to the incoming Trump Administration opposing these midnight Obama regulations, seeking deference to Congress on the issue.
But now the Trump bureaucracy is inexplicably moving ahead with the Obama anti-business regulations, as the bureaucrats fail to understand President Trump’s merit-based immigration. Under the new proposed rules, the investment thresholds for EB-5 visas would be raised to $1.35 million for distressed areas, and $1.8 million for any investment creating jobs in America. Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, Chief of the Office of Policy and Strategy, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has indicated that the Trump Administration wants to get this Obama era regulation done this year.
The power grabbing federal bureaucrats at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and Homeland Security also propose to seize from the states the authority to designate which areas would be labelled as distressed, as if federal bureaucrats would know better than state and local officials which areas in their states are distressed and most in need of new capital investment.
Lawyers, venture capitalists and real estate developers think this new regulation would kill the EB-5 investment program. Bureaucrats and Democrats do not understand how Trump’s policies of tax cuts and deregulation worked so well to restore booming economic growth to America, after years of Obama’s secular stagnation and “new normal” of no growth. This is why Trump needs to be reelected in 2020, because only he understands how it is done.
American Action Forum (AAF) reports that through these EB-5 immigrants, $20 billion has been invested in the U.S. since 2008, over $5 billion in 2017 alone. These investments have created 174,000 jobs, 16 jobs per each EB-5 immigrant investor.
Rather than restricting EB-5, President Trump should expand it, for more jobs, capital investment, and higher wages. AAF estimates that increasing investor visas to 20,000 a year would increase U.S. GDP by $11 billion annually. Ending the Visa lottery program would free up 50,000 visas a year that could be devoted to the EB-5 investor program, increasing capital investment, jobs, and higher wages for American workers. Even more could come from ending chain migration.
These reforms would contribute mightily to changing immigration to the U.S. to a merits-based concept, focused on allowing immigrants to America who could contribute the most to America.
President Kennedy who created a jobs and wages boom in the 1960s. ........................................ He sure did, it was called Berlin and Cuba. A lot of us guys got jobs paying $71 a day, but it was only once a month. LBJ got us jobs also, another 250,000+ I’m sure.
Millennials, GenXYZ, and everyone else can't replace the loss of the boomers in the workforce, and politicians are panicking over the collapse of these systems on their watch and the impact it will have on their fortunes.
-PJ
The EB-5 program isn’t merit based unless you think merit is something you can buy.
America doesn’t need to let people buy legal status just to get access to their capital. There’s plenty of capital floating around this country already.
If we want to encourage investment in disadvantaged areas we can do that via favorable tax treatment, etc. We don’t need to sell legal immigration status.
In a merit system we should look to encourage people who can provide ideas, energy and entrepreneurial initiative, not just wealthy people who have already built something elsewhere and may be heading into retirement.
For our country to grow we need smart, motivated and educated young people who are going to create their wealth here.
How about bringing over 10,000 Journalists willing to work for $8 an hour?
Trump right on. Would be great for America. Legislation will have to be before the House goes communists Democratic. Not much time and might have to wait a couple of years if we get back the House and keep the Senate. Including Trump reelection.
From my immigration reform prioposal on my home page here:
SEC. ???? Personal Rating Factor.
(a) The Secretary of HS shall create an Internet/computer-based system
(1) allowing the entry of application information including web links, pictures, document scans and performance videos, and
(2) permitting USCIS/Department of State personnel to individually confirm the examination of information and to enter point scores and their identity.
(b) reserved.
(c) a Personal Rating Factor for a person shall not be computed by USCIS until the system of (a) is operational and
(1) an I-129, I-130 or I-140 petition for the person has been filed, and
(2) a $700 Personal Rating Fee has been paid in a manner the Secretary of USCIS shall specify.
(d) reserved.
(e) The Education Factor shall be the sum, rounded to a whole number and limited to no more than 10, of the following point factors
where each point factor is multiplied by a specific USCIS assigned institution (or master) quality percentage or
reduced by 20% if the institution is government-run or
reduced by 50% plus up to 5% for each minute spent by USCIS trying to verify its/his/her existence:
(1) BA or BS degree or equal: 4 points
(2) masters degree or equal: 1 point
(3) doctorate or equal: 3 points
(4) top degree is in chemistry, medicine, electrical/petroleum/aeronautical/mechanical engineering: 5 points
(5) a degree/certificate is in performance, fine or applied art: 4 points
(6) apprentice/vocational school certificate: 4 points
(7) additional significant vocational certificate/qualification: 2 points
(8) played sports for three or more years at a school team level: 2 points
USCIS institution quality ranking percentages below 80% shall be official use only information.
The USCIS shall require associated documentation be appropriately provided, such as transcripts, diplomas, yearbooks, etc.
(f) The Skills Factor shall be the sum, limited to no more than 20,
of the following point factors, with those for language skills to be based on USCIS/Department of State (contractor/trusted partner) evaluation or transcripts:
(1) fluent to Interagency Language Roundtable scale of at least 3 in English: 6 points
[An Interagency Language Roundtable scale of 3 is the level most of the better domestic American learners of a foreign language achieve.]
(2) also fluent to Interagency Language Roundtable scale of at least 3 in one of the following languages
(A) Albanian, Bulgarian, Croatian/Serbian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, Hungarian, Modern Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Welsh,
(B) Afrikaans, Akan-Twi, Amharic, Chichewa, Fula, Hausa, Kikongo-Kongo, Lingala, Luganda, Swahili, Somali, Xhosa, Standard Yoruba, Zulu,
(C) Arabic, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Chechen, Dari/Farsi, Georgian, Hebrew, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Pashto, Tajik, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek,
(D) Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, Gujarati, Hindi, Hmong-Mong, Indonesian/Malay, Japanese, Kashimiri, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Malayalam, Mandarin, Mongolian, Nepali, Punjabi, Sinhala, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Vietnamese: 5 points each.
(3) copy of a USCIS recognized medical care license or
of applicant’s certificate from the Commission of Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS) provided: 2 points
(4) legally allowed to be a doctor/nurse practitioner and prescribe in the US: 15 points
(5) US legally recognized medically related skills (18 months or more of education typically required) and
has agreed with the USCIS to only practice in areas outside metropolitan areas in the lower 48 or Alaska: 5 points
(6) proven specialized knowledge of foreign law, with at least four years of education & professional paid experience: 13 points
(7) proven professional paid experience in foreign corporate level tax law: 3 points per year of experience, maximum 15 points
(8) proven professional paid applied/performance art experience, with samples to USCIS satisfaction, of at least two years: 12 points
(g) The Travel History Factor shall be the sum, limited to no more than 4,
of the following point factors, based on consulate examination of applicant passport(s) and old tickets:
(1) one point for each continent not of the passport country traveled to, 4 points maximum
(2) passport renewed or over four years old at time of application: 3 points
(h) The Positions/Assets Held Factor shall be the sum, limited to no more than 10,
of the following point factors:
(1) professionally paid years in current/recent field divided by four, 3 points maximum
(2) managerial position currently/recently held for over two years: 3 points
(3) professor at a college or university: 3 points
(4) high-skilled technical or artistic position held: 5 points
(5) employment history without undue gaps and to at least reasonable educational (or its income) expectation: 5 points
(6) self-employed and self-supporting for over three years: 5 points
(7) had more than one employee on payroll for over four years: 5 points
(8) has at least $200,000 in financial account assets: 1 point per $100,000 or ~equal
The USCIS shall require documentation to its satisfaction, such as copies of business licenses, bank statements, tax statements, pay stubs, etc.
(i) The Income Factor shall be the income in two years out of the last five filed
based on official copies of tax returns divided
by an estimate of country per capita income reasonable to use,
rounded to an integer number and limited to no more than 5.
(j) The Employer Factor shall be the sum, limited to no more than 14,
of the following point factors:
(1) The Sponsored Person’s Education Factor is at least 3 and the Employer is a USCIS-listed, US-accredited degree-granting institution: 9 points
(2) Employer is over four years old with over $100,000 in US FICA & Medicare tax paid: 5 points
(3) US/foreign employer is in a technical field, software factor: 2 points each: rare, employer proprietary, novel
(4) US/foreign employer is in a technical field, other factors: 3 points each: one of a few in industry, niche supplier, complex technology, R&D (patent) dependent
(5) pay of best paid employee, as per employer certification: 3 points: top tax bracket; 2 points: within 10% of top tax bracket; 1 point: just above lowest tax bracket
(k) Patents & Publications & Performances Factor shall be the sum, limited to no more than 25,
of the following point factors:
(1) US/EU/Japanese/Chinese utility patent issued: 5 points
(2) US/EU/Japanese/Chinese utility patent renewed: 7 points
(3) listed inventor on multiple US/EU/Japanese/Chinese utility patents issued: 5 points
(4) listed inventor on the molecular structure patent issued for a blockbuster or FDA breakthrough or orphan drug: 20 points
(5) substantial article in a USCIS listed engineering/medical/science journal: 1 point per article, up to 10 points
(6) author of a printed book, with royalty income of over $10,000 in the US, Canada & B-2 visa waiver countries: 6 points
(7) author of a printed book, with royalty income of over $50,000 in the US, Canada & B-2 visa waiver countries: 6 points
(8) author (or one of a group, listed on the cover or table of contents) of a printed college-level/trade school textbook: 6 points
(9) author (or one of a group, listed on the cover or table of contents) of a printed college-level technical specialist book: 6 points
(10) highly skilled artist/musician: 10 points
(11) leading artist/performer by affiliation/sales/work/reputation: 20 points
(12) leading artisan by affiliation/sales/work/reputation: 12 points
(13) highly skilled mechanic (motor vehicle, construction/farm vehicle, aircraft,
factory tooling/automation): 2 points per year of paid experience, up to 8 points
The book(s) must have been sold a substantial number of times according to popular market platform websites.
Points shall be awarded only with appropriate patent identification(s), website links, samples, sales material, demonstrations, videos, pay stubs, tax/royalty statement(s), official copies of tax returns, etc.
(l) Personality and Cultural (US/native) Appreciation Evaluation Factor, up to 12, for official use only,
that may be substantially subjective, that is the lowest score of two interviews, one soft-style, one pointed, each style to be described upfront
Each interview shall use a mix of questions that are standardized, interviewer specific and made up on the fly/based on current events.
(m) reserved.
(n) The Personal Rating Factor shall be the sum of the Factors of (e) through (l).
[Getting into the USA will be very much like getting a job, with an application and interviews.]
“disadvantaged areas”
These tend to have governments run by Democrats.
We need creative people to create opportunity.
“wealthy people who have already built something elsewhere and may be heading into retirement.”
They generally would desirable immigrants.
The Brits make lots of money selling high-priced real estate.
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