Trump’s Immigration Proposal Is a Step in the Right Direction
In an address last week, President Donald Trump offered an immigration proposal that, in his words, “establishes a new legal immigration system that protects American wages, promotes American values, and attracts the best and brightest from all around the world.” As just about every news outlet that’s covered it has made clear, the proposal is very unlikely to make its way through Congress. But that is hardly surprising. Short of a no-strings-attached mass amnesty, it is difficult to envision Democrats in the House endorsing any legislative proposal from the Trump White House on an issue that has proved so divisive, and so richly resonant to left-of-center activists and donors.
But Trump’s proposal actually gets the framework right for a new approach to immigration policy. Rather than the number of green cards the U.S. grants every year, Trump is now calling for admissions to ensure from steep reductions in legal immigration for some time. If congressional Democrats took this proposal seriously, they could push the administration to follow through on the logic of this plan, adding provisions that would make it both more politically viable and more effective. And for congressional Republicans, the plan offers a chance to turn a divisive issue for their coalition into a unifying one.
