“Do We Cheat Em and How” — Darth Miller; The Don; and
Kush
This
shocking story comes
from Salon.com – the general highlights follow:
While Donald Trump has
loudly attacked the low-hanging fruit that is illegal immigration, his
administration has quietly implemented a xenophobic crackdown on legal
immigrants.
Look back to January 2018 Oval Office meeting when an exasperated Trump asked Senate leaders gathered there to
discuss reforms to the legal immigration system asking point blank: “Why are we having all these people from
shithole countries come here?”
Now two
years after first outlining his push against people from those so-called
countries legally emigrating here, Trump finally followed up on his threats and
introduced a sweeping immigration reform plan. It was immediately panned by his
own party with Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) saying: “We seem to never fail to miss an opportunity to fail.”
This new
Trump plan, crafted by son-in-law Jared Kushner and top White House adviser,
Stephen Miller, would slash legal immigration in certain categories without
expanding it anywhere else under this so-called Trump “merit-based proposal.”
Immigrants
would be selected through a point-based system that scores for (1) extraordinary
talent, (2) professional and specialized vocations, and (3) exceptional
academic track records.” But even that appears dead on arrival in the
Republican-led Senate.
Trump’s State
Department announced this week with two major changes to the “Diversity
Immigrant Visa Program (DIVP),” which Trump has repeatedly maligned.
• The first
new rule requires applicants to already have a passport at the time of application.
• The second
mandates that any typographical error on the application results in immediate,
unappealable disqualification.
Trump's
proposal to circumvent Congress in pursuit of crushing this program is in line
with his notion of wanting fewer people from those “shithole countries” —
effectively anywhere in the global South — and more from rich white countries
in Europe (recall that Trump said more
people that come from Norway).
Depending on
the country, passports can be logistically and financially difficult to come
by, so this new requirement will reduce the number of applicants — with poor
applicants and those from rural areas likely taking the biggest hit.
Established
in 1990, the DIVP is meant to encourage immigration to the U.S. from countries
with historically low rates of emigration. It was initially created to revive
dwindling European immigration after Irish-American and Italian-American
lawmakers argued that the “old seed
immigrant groups were being shut out by newer groups from Asia and Latin
America.”
That program
also helps balance the U.S. immigration system’s tendency to favor individuals
who have close relationships with family members or employers in the U.S. who
are able to sponsor their visas.
Only nationals
of low-admission countries — defined as any country with fewer than 50,000
natives admitted to the U.S. in the previous five years, such as Cameroon or
Sri Lanka — are eligible to enter the diversity lottery.
Citizens of
countries with the most legal immigrant arrivals in recent years — such as
Mexico, Canada, China and India — are not eligible to apply. Additionally, no
more than 7% of the year's available visas may go to natives of any one
country.
In 2015, the
year with the most recent available data, 41% of diversity lotto visas were
granted to natives of African countries. The single largest number that year went
to Nepal.
The odds of
getting a visa this way are severely low: Almost 14.7 million people from all
over the world entered the lottery last year. 100,000 were randomly selected to
undergo extensive screening, which includes identity
confirmations using biometrics, criminal investigation and in-person
interviews.
Lottery
entry requirements also include at least a high school education,
or two years of work experience within the past five years in an occupation
that requires at least two years of training or experience to perform.
Ultimately, permanent visas are limited by law to only 50,000 people per year.
Trump says: “Diversity
lottery. Sounds nice. It’s not nice. It’s not good. It hasn’t been good in the
past. We’ve been against it.”
He went on to
claim falsely (in typical fashion) that countries are taking advantage of the
lottery program, saying in 2017 of such countries that: “they give us their worst people, they put
them in a bin, then the worst of the worst are selected.”
White House press
secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders falsely claimed that immigrants coming to the
U.S. through the diversity visa are not vetted before their arrival. FYI: In
reality, countries have no way to nominate their citizens and cannot select who
they’d like to get rid of.
My 2 cents: Imagine this had been in effect when
Trump’s grandfather came to the U.S. from Germany as a 16-year old escaping
mandatory military service, or Stephen Miller relatives (recall one was refused
citizenship for “being too ignorant.”)
Yeah, just imagine that.
Talk about racism at the highest level from any
president ever in American history – wow – this is it.
Thanks for stopping.
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