ENSURING THE SAFETY OF AMERICANS: It is time to end immigration policies that jeopardize the security of our communities.
- The Trump Administration has repeatedly described how our current immigration system jeopardizes America’s national security and public safety.
- A recent Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report found that between September 11, 2001, and December 31, 2016, 73 percent of those convicted of international terrorism-related charges were foreign-born.
- During that period, 1,716 foreign-born aliens with national security concerns were removed from the United States.
- The DOJ and DHS report further found that a number of foreign-born terrorists entered the United States based on family ties and extended-family chain migration.
- There have been a number of terrorist attacks in the United States carried out by children of foreign-born individuals.
- In FY 2017, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers and Border Patrol agents arrested more than 20,000 criminal aliens and more than 10,000 individuals who were wanted by law enforcement authorities.
- In FY 2017, Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested nearly 800 MS-13 members and affiliates.
REFORMS NEEDED: President Trump has proposed vital reforms needed to improve our immigration system and provide a permanent solution for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
- President Trump has released a framework that will fulfill four agreed-upon pillars of immigration reform.
- President Trump has made clear that we must secure our borders and close legal loopholes that prevent the prompt removal of those who cross the border illegally. This includes a $25 billion trust fund for the border wall system, ports of entry and exit, and northern border improvements.
- President Trump is promoting nuclear family migration by allowing immigration sponsorships of spouses and minor children only.
- More than 70 percent of immigrants who receive green cards every year do so based on their family relationships, not their skills.
- President Trump has called for ending the visa lottery program, and therefore stopping our current practice of awarding green cards without consideration of skills or merit.
- The United States now awards 50,000 green cards every year through the visa lottery.
- President Trump wants to provide legal status for DACA recipients and certain other DACA-eligible illegal immigrants—a total population of approximately 1.8 million individuals.
IMMIGRATION REFORM WILL BENEFIT STRUGGLING AMERICAN COMMUNITIES: Merit-based immigration reform will benefit American workers and relieve the strain imposed by our current system on Federal resources.
- Years of mass low-skilled immigration has led to suppressed wages and has strained Federal resources.
- Most immigrants who receive green cards every year are low-skilled or unskilled workers.
- Almost one-third of all adult immigrants in the United States have not graduated high school.
- Only about 1 of every 15 immigrants who come to the United States each year is admitted on the basis of skill.
- Our current immigration system strains the resources of our Nation’s welfare programs.
- More than half of all immigrant households use one or more welfare programs.
- Immigrants with a college education or higher, however, are less likely to receive welfare benefits.
- Real hourly wages for Americans with a high school diploma or lower have declined since 1979.
