Translated material
Trump proposed canceling the Green Card lottery
Donald Trump presented his plan for migration reform , part of which should be the abolition of the Green Card lottery, annually allowing 50 thousand inhabitants of other countries to get a residence in the United States. Instead, Trump proposes to introduce a new Build America program, in which preference will be given to specialists with high qualifications and a proposal for working in American companies. The chances of approving reform in Congress are small.
Read more. Now 66% of legal immigrants arrive in the United States on the basis of family ties, and only 12% in connection with employment or on the basis of highly qualified. The whole thing is in the official position of the country, because of which for decades, priority was given to family immigration in the United States, Reuters notes . Trump plans to maintain legal immigration at the level of 1.1 million people a year, but increase the involvement of highly qualified specialists to 57%.
- The new Build America visa, which Trump proposes to introduce instead of Green Card, will be issued according to the results of the score. The point system will take into account knowledge, skills, financial situation and the results of the test of knowledge of the English language. Visas will be issued to three categories of immigrants: employees of “outstanding talent”, specialists in the most popular sectors and exclusively capable of students. Those applicants who already have a proposal for work from an American company will have a significant advantage.
- All this should allow increasing the average income of new immigrants to $ 126,000 per year. In 2018, the average annual wage of legal immigrants in the United States was about $ 43,000, Trump said during the performance.
- Representing the reform, Trump emphasized that representatives of law enforcement agencies made a significant contribution to it.
Numbers. According to the US State Department, the number of applications submitted to Green Card has exceeded 23 million - this is the maximum indicator since 2012. More than 430 thousand applications were submitted from Russians, almost three times more compared to the same 2012.
Chances of success. The probability that the reform will be approved by Congress in the form in which Trump is now offering it is small, writes The Wall Street Journal. Democrats who control the House of Representatives criticized Build America Visa even before the plan was presented publicly, writes Associated Press.
Context. Trump's attempts to limit the flow of immigrants in the United States are not limited to building a wall on the border with Mexico. In the summer of 2018, he announced his intention to prohibit citizenship of children born in the country on “soil right”, but has not yet taken specific actions.