Ok, let us continue looking at Donald Trump's immigration plan.
This time dealing with people legally coming into the country.
End J-1 Visas: Trump wants to end this particular
type of visa that caters to foreign youth looking for a job. Basically,
no more job help for younger immigrants. His reasoning is that this visa
can be replaced with a resume bank which will hold the resumes of inner city
youth (those affected most by poverty). As such, these American youths
would be able to be looked at to be potentially hired over a foreign national.
Though this does not stop illegals and other migrant youth already in the
country from being hired. Also, even if this does work, what happens to
these foreign youth who are now jobless? How are they to make a living?
If these youth are included in the resume bank I can understand, but if
they are not then we doom these young teens and young adults to poverty.
Increase wages of H-1B's: H-1B's is another type of visa
geared toward foreign nationals being hired by American businesses. These
visas come with a minimum wage that makes them desirable to businesses who wish
to fill entry level and higher jobs. The idea to raise the minimum wage
for these individuals to a level high enough that they are no longer considered
to be hired by businesses for low skilled jobs. As such, entry level jobs
will be hopefully filled by American citizens looking for entry level positions
and into low skilled jobs. Things will not change for these visas for
higher end jobs however which I think is intentional. Trump and those
like him (I believe) want skilled labor and highly intelligent immigrants to
come and live in the country. As such, keeping the wage high to attract
these individuals and potentially make them citizens later is possibly what
they are aiming for.
Hire Americans first: Trump's numbers say that there are
92 million Americans out of work. Our population is 300 million. So
almost a 1/3 of Americans out of work seems sketchy, but he wants to make it
that businesses hire from American citizens who are unemployed first and
foremost. What Trumps definition of unemployed is debatable, but I
understand where he is coming from. But how? How will he accomplish
this? Sure the ideas he puts forth will help, but all come at cost, or
are not ideal as they potentially can cause legal migrants to turn to
criminality just to survive, and thus we just end up deporting more people as
per Trumps ideas for immigration reform.
End Welfare Abuse: Immigrants coming into the United
States will apparently be forced to certify that they can afford their own
housing, healthcare and other basic needs. This is Trumps answer to all
of my criticisms so far. Basically, if you cannot afford to live here,
then you will not be allowed to come into the United States in the first place.
While it makes sense, the standards will be set by national averages and thus
people that could move here and be citizens (or just live here) may be unable
to enter because the bar is set too high (there are places in America where it
is really cheap to live and below the national average). As such, I find
this idea good in one respect, but it is geared toward bringing in the richest
immigrants into the United States, the intellectuals and so on. But our
country is more than just a bunch a rich smart people. If this was set up
instead to find the most affordable towns for immigrants to live in where they
will thrive, then I would agree. But this is not that. It is set up
for elites to enter the country, not the people who dream or make up the
backbone of the country.
Conclusion: Trump annoys me due to these
idealist plans that favor the rich. Do not get me wrong, his ideas will
work, but there will be negative consequences that may even reduce legal
immigration to a standstill. I think the H-1B visa idea is the best, and
the national resume bank can be expanded to include all the unemployed to make
that better. But beyond other improvements mentioned already, I think
Trumps ideas here just don't stack up well enough to solve our immigration
woes.
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