Nowrasteh on a DACA Fix That ' s " Worse than Nothing "

In an op-ed published yesterday atThe Hill, Alex Nowrasteh wrote about why a bill working its way through the U.S. House of Representatives may be one of the most anti-immigration bills in decades. With both chambers of Congress now looking to make good on promises to provide a legal framework for the roughly 700,000 DREAMers impacted by President Trump ’s decision last year to rescind DACA, many House Republicans are pledging to support the Securing America’s Future (“SAF”) Act. Democrats may not support the SAF Act, but Nowrasteh notes that it will likely represent a line in the sand for many Republicans as negotiations proceed. The problem? “As a so-called DACA fix,” he writes, “the SAF Act barely measures up.”It would provide DREAMers with temporary and renewable residency permits —in other words, short-term reprieves. And in return, DREAMers would face a new set of restrictions, including the requirement that they maintain an income 125 percent higher than the poverty line.The SAF Act also makes major cuts to legal immigration categories:[It] inexplicably cuts legal immigration, reducing the number of immigrants by as much as half after 10 years. Among the categories cut are the diversity green card, which is completely eliminated, as well as most family-sponsored immigrants. Asylum seekers will also get a significant chop under the bill.Under the new SAF Act status quo, immigration would allow fewer skill-based immigrants, due to the move away from th...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs