New Immigration Law Changes Affect the Family and American Values

In 1965 Lyndon B Johnson signed the Immigration and Nationality Act into effect which held the family unit as an integral part of the policy. The original policy held the family unit in high regard and did not put any cap on the amount of green cards available for “immediate relatives” of American citizens.

Enter the Trump Administration’s Merit Based Immigration System

Now the Trump administration, more specifically Attorney General Sessions, Stephen Miller, and senators Tom Cotton and David Purdue have been leading a campaign to eliminate the family first visa system and replace it with a “merit based” system.

The core of their campaign is to label the long standing immigration policy as a security threat in what they call “chain migration.” The official stance from the White House website is as follows:

“Most green cards in the United States are awarded based on an antiquated system of family ties, not skill or merit. The system of Chain Migration whereby one immigrant can bring in their entire extended families, who can bring in their families and so on – deskills the labor force, puts downward pressure on wages, and increases the deficit. Chain Migration also under mines national security, by failing to establish merit-based criteria for evaluating entrants to the United States.” 

This stance is hypocritical to the core of our immigration policy and our family values as Americans. The EB visa programs are put in affect for skilled people to come join the benefits of being an American citizen because of their proven value. It would undermine their ability to continue to succeed to remove them from their families. Family based immigration was the original policy because as Americans we believe that we are stronger with our families, to limit approved immigrants access to their families is to limit their likelihood for success, and to limit our core beliefs as Americans.