A study has found that if former president Donald Trump is re-elected this year, it could negatively affect US immigration. Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to Trump, has come up with a policy playbook for a second Trump administration. It said that the “impacts on immigration would be far more complex and destructive than previously reported” if Trump is elected again.
“It isn’t simply a refresh of first-term ideas, dusted off and ready to be re-implemented. Rather, it reflects a meticulously orchestrated, comprehensive plan to drive immigration levels to unprecedented lows and increase the federal government’s power to the states’ detriment. These proposals circumvent Congress and the courts and are specifically engineered to dismantle the foundations of our immigration system,” the study says.
What are some of the most problematic proposals?
- Federal financial aid can be blocked for up to two-thirds of all American college students if their state permits certain immigrant groups to access in-state tuition. The groups include Dreamers with legal status.
- The legal status of 500,000 Dreamers may be terminated by eliminating staff time for reviewing and processing renewal applications.
- Updates to the annual eligible country lists for H-2A and H-2B temporary worker visas could be suspended. Most populations would thus be excluded from “filling critical gaps in the agricultural, construction, hospitality, and forestry sectors.”
- If US citizens live with anyone who is not a US citizen or legal permanent resident, they may be barred from qualifying for federal housing subsidies.
- States may be forced to share driver’s licences and taxpayer identification information with federal authorities, or risk critical funding.
The study further says that a Trump administration might cut off legal immigration, which includes “high-skilled and temporary employment, family reunification, and humanitarian protection.” Visa eligibility may be restricted by country. The new administration could suspend the issuance of immigrant visas, nonimmigrant visas, or all visas if a country is categorised as “recalcitrant or uncooperative regarding the receipt of deported nationals.”
“As of June 2020, 13 countries–including China, Russia, India, Cuba, and Eritrea–are classified as recalcitrant, many of which comprise the largest origin countries for U.S.-based international students, foreign high-skilled workers, or family reunification beneficiaries,” the study says. “Leveraging entire visa categories as collateral in foreign policy negotiations would result in aggressive restrictions on legal immigration. Rather than holding the noncompliant governments responsible, these restrictions would only punish the country’s nationals and the American families, universities, and businesses that rely on them.”
The study says that these proposals “mark a significant divergence from traditional conservative immigration priorities like promoting merit-based immigration, fostering assimilation, and enhancing interior enforcement,” and could “cripple the existing immigration system.”
