Trump Supporters Prepare Limiting Legal Immigration

During President Donald Trump’s campaign, he not only promised to crack down on illegal immigration, but vowed to tighten legal immigration as well. Now, lawmakers who share Trump’s vision are beginning to lay out their plan to execute his goals.

Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who has long supported Trump, has drafted the first in a series of bills to overhaul the current US immigration system, Politico reports. The first bill, which Cotton plans to unveil on Tuesday, will significantly reduce the number of people who will be able to obtain green cards or visas annually, slashing the number by 40 percent in the first year and by 50 percent over the next decade.

"Donald Trump was the only one who saw that most Americans don’t like our current immigration system,” Cotton told Politico on Monday. “This is just the area of politics where I think leaders and elites are most disconnected from the people. Not just Republicans but in both parties, in business, in the media, in the academy, culture and so forth."

Currently, US citizens and permanent residents are allowed to sponsor spouses, parents, siblings, married adult children, and various other family members. Under Cotton’s plan, which he is unrolling along with Georgia Senator David Perdue, only spouses, unmarried minor children, and elderly parents of American citizens who are their caretakers, will be eligible for sponsorship.

The bill will also cut the visa lottery, approximately 50,000 of which are awarded annually, to nations with low rates of immigration to the nation. It will also put a 50,000 per year cap on refugees.

"Sen. Cotton and I are taking action to fix the shortcomings in our legal immigration system," Perdue said. "Returning to our historically normal levels of legal immigration will help improve the quality of American jobs and wages."