Politico: Cotton and Trump plot crackdown on legal immigration

[The_Doctor]

Not shocking. Even less shocking is Harding's dislike of “minority immigrants.˝

[The_Doctor]

Let's call a spade a spade. A sizable chunk of Trump voters voted for this because they're worried about an imaginary racial marginalizing of whites. All the talk of economic sidelining and high minded bs about immigration being bad masks this basic cultural fear. That's not a fiction at this point as proven by 2016's campaign. EHarding speaks for a ton of Trump voters by referring to Mexico in derisive and heightened language. While I think he's a troll he ably speaks for a lot of frightened Trumpists who do actually believe this crap.

We're fine with immigration. In fact it's the reason our population grows and our economy is pretty strong. And as a matter of fact they're assimilating pretty well for the most part. It seems the natives who have the problem, really.

[The_Doctor]

Just off the top of my head --

1.) There are a lot of highly skilled immigrants who do come here. Trump wants to curtail the HB-1 visa, because he thinks local IT talent are being harmed. He's wrong. The IT and tech industry have said specifically the HB-1 visa is essential to Silicon Valley and innovation. But foreign IT has helped create a lot of innovation for the United States. Dropbox, Tinder, Google, whatever. The president of Google is Indian, for example.

So, for one, the HB-1 visa should NOT be curtailed.

2.) Most economists say immigration usually help out the United States. Now with automation that may change, but honestly, menial jobs like fruit picking, cleaning hotels, etc are done by poor immigrants. They're not something that more settled (read: white) Americans will do.

Should we have criteria-based immigration visas? Yes. We should. We should have x going to various nations for fruit picking, hotel cleaning, etc and we should decide that on a neutral formula (read: not decided by Trump). We should maintain the HB-1 visa. Etc etc. Should we build a wall? No, because it's cost ineffective. Should we have e-Verify to make sure everyone in the United States is legal? Absolutely. (Note: I am a center-right conservative on immigration. More Bush 43).

I would point out that immigration has not really dented the unemployment rate since the Great Migration started in 1965. We've managed to have a very healthy economy on balance and the Great Recession was due to other factors, not immigration.

Most economists believe immigration is a net benefit to the United States. I tend to agree. I'll link an article later.