Rep. Judy Chu: 'The White House immigration proposal is an insult to our nation'

DESPITE WHAT HE SAYS, -- "Love those Dreamers," -- Donald Trump isn't serious about giving DACA participants a pathway to citizenship. Otherwise, why would he propose immigration reform measures that would be impossible for Democrats to accept?

If it was just the $25-billion Damn Wall, there might be a little give-and-take in negotiations increasing border security while allowing the Dreamers to remain in the only country they've ever known. However, the Trump proposals essentially closes that door. 

Among the key elements of Trump's plan that are stumbling blocks are:

• Cutting legal immigration -- 1.1 million annually -- by 44%
• Shutting off family-based migration for all but spouses and minor children
• Eliminating the visa lottery program, or “green card lottery,” which aims to diversify the immigrant population

That's a huge bet in a high-stakes poker game. The GOP is dangling the fate of 800,000 DACA enrolees vs. a complete overhaul of the immigration policies that have been in effect since 1965 when the Immigration & Naturalization Act removed the policies that favored immigrants from Europe by giving each country a 20,000 yearly quota.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), released the following statement in response to the White House’s immigration proposals:

“The White House immigration proposal is an insult to our nation. This purely partisan plan is as extreme and xenophobic as its creators: Stephen Miller and Donald Trump. It holds Dreamers hostage by demanding exorbitant border enforcement funds and proposes to decimate our legal, family-based immigration system and end diversity visas in order to enshrine DACA protections. 

"As I have said before, any cuts to our family-based immigration system in a DACA deal is absolutely unacceptable. Our current, family-based immigration system has been in existence since 1965 and has contributed greatly to America. It has strengthened our economy and has often been the only mechanism for women to reunite with their families in the United States. Contributing to America should not require individuals to abandon their loved ones, and CAPAC will not support an anti-immigrant proposal that simply trades one family’s pain for that of another.

“Trump’s extreme proposal slams the door on immigration to this country. U.S. citizens and green card holders would no longer be able to sponsor their parents, siblings, or adult children over the age of 21. Only spouses and minor children would be able to come. This would cut in half the number of legal immigrants who could come to this country.

“This proposal runs contrary to our values as a nation, and is especially harmful to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, many of whom have reunited with their families through our legal immigration system. It is clear that Donald Trump’s cruel decision to terminate the DACA program last September was made to appease his anti-immigrant base. The fact that Donald Trump would now demand that we decimate our legal, family unification system reveals his true goal: to make America white again.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that Dreamers should be able to stay in the United States and continue to contribute to the only country many of them have ever known. There are multiple proposals to protect Dreamers in Congress that have strong bipartisan support. However, Donald Trump has chosen to double down on his hateful, xenophobic demands and hold Dreamers ransom in order to propagate his anti-immigrant agenda. I urge Republican leadership to prioritize governing over campaigning, and allow us to vote on a clean DREAM Act immediately.”

The vast majority of DACA recipients are from Mexico. Eighty-four percent of Mexicans and 83 percent of Salvadorans applied in 2016. Immigrants from Asian countries have some of the lowest application rates — less than 30 percent of eligible applicants applied from the Philippines, India and South Korea. Only about 20% of the eligible Korean population applied, and only 23% of eligible Filipinos and 20% of eligible Indians applied, according to the Migration Policy Institute. But 82% of eligible Mexicans applied.

"Instead of stepping up as heroes, too many members of Congress in both parties are still acting like cowards, abandoning immigrant families who are natural political allies and have the power to sway elections," said Christina Jimnez, executive director of United We Dream.

"Year after year, members of Congress count on the support of immigrants and people of color. Our communities regularly show up at the polls. But when we call on Congress to show up for us, some Democrats and moderate Republicans are reluctant to step up," she warned.

"When considering Trump’s latest plan for immigration and the Dream Act, Democrats and Republicans of conscience must hold the line, and do what is morally right and politically necessary for the protection of immigrant youth and families."
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Asian Americans say Trump's ideas on immigration will hurt economy, divide famillies

Some industries couldn't get by without immigrant labor.

PEOPLE who have a friend or relative waiting in the 20-year line for his or her visa to immigrate to the United States, might have to wait a little longer under the Republican's proposed immigration plan.
The RAISE Act (S. 1720) introduced by Republican Senators Tom Cotton, Ark., and David Purdue, Ga., will impact immigrants from Asia and Latin America and at the same time, give an advantage to immigrants from Great Britain, Australia and Canada - all English-speaking countries.

Besides cutting all legal immigration into the United States in half, the RAISE Act also,

• Curtails family-based visa programs,
• Makes a reduction in refugee admissions permanent
• Slashes the number of green cards available, and
• Replaces employment visa categories with a point-based merit system that gives priority to individuals based on criteria including age, English proficiency, education, and economic factors. 

“Commonsense immigration reform is necessary, but the RAISE Act keeps families apart, and undermines American businesses and their workforce needs,” said Cyndie M. Chang, president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association . “This bill reduces legal immigration, turns our backs on refugees, and rejects our core value of keeping families together."

Nearly two-thirds of the Asian Pacific American community is foreign-born and 92 percent of Asian Pacific Americans are immigrants or have immigrant parents. AAPI families are diverse, having come to the U.S. to join their families to seek opportunity, or as refugees following humanitarian crises. The majority of these families came to the U.S. under employment-based visas and family-based visa programs that would be cut under this legislation. 

Further, these reductions would increase delays in the already long visa-backlog that continues to keep families apart. Many who have applied to sponsor family members have already been enduring separation from their families because of the backlog for visas, Yang said. India and the Philippines have among the highest number of waiting list registrants with some of those back of the line face 20-plus years of waiting.

“The draconian use of legislation and executive orders to criminalize and marginalize immigrant communities reveals the inherent xenophobia of this administration. From bans to walls to raids to this current focus on slashing green card numbers, there is a concerted effort to purge immigrants from our nation," stated Lakshmi Sridaran, Director of National Policy and Advocacy at South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT).

Jobs, really?

One of the claims the administration is using to sell this plan is that it would help American workers, as if immigrants were taking the jobs away from native born. There’s a reason those against immigrants don’t cite data showing how much of a drag immigration puts on the economy or even cite the net number of jobs Americans lose to new immigrants. There is no data to support their position.

Instead, they can only present anecdotal evidence. They tell us about the grieving mother of someone killed by an “illegal” or the recidivism of a recent immigrant who commits a crime.  And they won’t say how often the crimes are perpetrated by illegal or recent immigrants relative to the general population because that would undermine their argument.

Even the conservative Wall Street Journal wrote in a 2015 commentary that “newcomers to the US are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or be incarcerated.”

Most economists say immigration has a net economic benefit and is associated more with job creation than with job loss, even though there may be negative effects for the least skilled, least educated native-born workers.

"In reality, these drastic cuts to our legal immigration system would devastate America’s economic growth and threaten our competitive advantage to attract the best talent to our shores," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

“America wins when people are welcomed and integrated into our society and given the chance to contribute to the U.S. economy. Immigrant families fill critical gaps in our workforce, open new businesses, and help to create jobs to improve local economies across the country."

"Immigrants are overrepresented in a lot of occupations in both low- and high-skilled jobs," he explained. "You'd feel an impact and loss in many, many different occupations and industries, from construction and landscape to finance and IT," said Daniel Costa, the director of immigration law and policy research at the Economic Policy Institute, an economic research think tank based in Washington, D.C.

Though some U.S.-born workers could fill some of those jobs, large gaps in several sectors would remain and cause a decline in the economy, Costa said.

A study by the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan think tank, found that 51% of the billion-dollar startups in the tech industry were founded by immigrants.

"If you look at the great companies driving the U.S. as an innovation hub, you'll see that a lot of companies were started by immigrants or the child of immigrants, like Apple and Google," he said. Apple was co-founded by Steve Jobs, whose biological father was a Syrian refugee, and Google (now Alphabet) was co-founded by Sergey Brin, who was born in Moscow.

Though immigrants make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, they contribute nearly 15 percent of the country's economic output, according to a 2014 report from the Economic Policy Institute. The report contains the institute's latest data on immigration and the U.S. economy.

David Kallick, the director of the Immigration Research Initiative at the Fiscal Policy Institute, said Americans should not be fearful that immigrants are stealing jobs from them.

"It may seem surprising, but study after study has shown that immigration actually improves wages to U.S.-born workers and provides more job opportunities for U.S.-born workers," he told ABC News. "The fact is that immigrants often push U.S.-born workers up in the labor market rather than out of it."

Hidden motive

Despite the evidence refuting the economic reasons claimed by the Trump administration, the proposal appeals is stil appealing to the Trump base if it slows down the demographic shift in the U.S. that will soon see no ethnic group having the majority. That would mean whites would lose their historic position as the dominant race.

"We remind the country that the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was a civil rights act that overturned the racist quota system that gave preference to Northern and Western European immigrants. Immigration to the U.S. since the passage of that Act is responsible for the vibrant and diverse country that we have today. To end that system would be a grave mistake harming the very soul of our Nation," said Asian Americans Advancing Justice in a statement.

“America is a nation of values, founded on an idea that all people are created equal. Policies that break families apart and create false divisions among immigrants based on flawed notions of meritocracy do not live up to these values," stated Lakshmi Sridaran, Director of National Policy and Advocacy at SAALT.

“The draconian use of legislation and executive orders to criminalize and marginalize immigrant communities reveals the inherent xenophobia of this administration. From bans to walls to raids to this current focus on slashing green card numbers, there is a concerted effort to purge immigrants from our nation."

Labor leaders, members of the Asian Pacific Americans Labor Association (APALA), believe the immigraiton proposal is trying to scapegoat immigrants and divide the communities of color.

“Every day our immigrant and refugee communities face a new threat, a new reason to fear living in this country. The administration-backed RAISE Act is another damaging tactic that is not only laced with xenophobic and anti-immigrant sentiment but also part of a larger agenda to strengthen white supremacy under the guise of ‘America First,’ said Johanna Puno Hester, APALA National President and Assistant Executive Director of the United Domestic Workers, AFSCME Local 3930:

"Let us not be fooled by the divisive narrative the right wing is painting of ‘good’ versus ‘bad’ immigrant, and let us not forget that the countless contributions of immigrants and refugees continue to enrich our country at its core," she said. 
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