speech on the topic - limiting immigration is limiting opportunities
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The high-profile political battles over immigration have focused extensively on a border wall and the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, designed to protect unauthorized immigrants who entered the country as children from deportation.
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What limiting legal immigration would do to our economy
Amy Scott and Peter Balonon-Rosen 2 years ago
Immigrants prepare to become American citizens at a naturalization service on Jan. 22 in Newark, New Jersey. John Moore/Getty Images
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The high-profile political battles over immigration have focused extensively on a border wall and the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, designed to protect unauthorized immigrants who entered the country as children from deportation.
But flying under much of the public radar is the contentious debate over legal immigration. And there’s a lot at stake.
A proposed bill that President Donald Trump has endorsed known as the RAISE Act would cut the number of green cards awarded each year in half. Family reunification would no longer be a priority. Instead, those with higher education and skills would get priority for the reduced number of slots.
It’s not the first time America has grappled with immigration policy.
“America has always been ambivalent about immigration,” said Muzaffar Chishti, a director at Migration Policy Institute. “For a nation of immigrants, that may sound odd. But that’s been a part of our history.”
There’s been debate over immigration in American policy as long as there’s been American policy.
“George Washington thought that we did not need any more immigrants except a few skilled carpenters,” Chishti said. “We had campaigns against the Irish — the Know Nothing Party was established in the 1840s purely on the basis of keeping Irish out. In 1882, Congress enacted the infamous Chinese Exclusion Act.”
And for the first time, in 1921 Congress imposed quotas, not geographic limits, on immigrants — this time on people from Southern and Eastern European nations.
Fewer immigrants means fewer workers.
“You want to be a super economic power, you need labor market growth,” Chishti said. “You can’t have economic growth without labor market growth”
So, how will the proposed immigration policies play out today? The Penn Wharton Budget Model uses economic modeling to create simulators of how different policies could play out economically. Kimberly Burham, managing director, joined Marketplace’s Amy Scott to discuss it. An edited transcript of their conversation is below.