The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, is calling on all Americans of conscience to urge their members of Congress to not support the Trump administration-endorsed RAISE Act (Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act), that slashes legal immigration in half from 1 million to 500,000 new Green Card holders and favors English speakers.
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“Our nation’s Statue of Liberty includes the famous quote: ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.’ We do not exclude immigrants, refugees or visitors; nor do we deny them their due process rights or benefits once admitted,” said CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw.
Introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AR) and David Perdue (R-GA), the RAISE Act would also eliminate Green Card preferences for extended and adult family members of U.S. residents, restricting immigration preferences for parents, siblings, and adult children of U.S. citizens.
Under the act, elderly parents of U.S. citizens would only be eligible for renewable temporary visas provided that they cannot access public benefits and their children can provide for all their healthcare needs.
SEE: Trump, GOP Senators Introduce Bill to Slash Legal Immigration Levels
The RAISE Act would also dismantle the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program – also known as the “Diversity Lottery” – which makes 50,000 visas available yearly to applicants from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.
The act arbitrarily cuts the number Green Cards provided to refugees from 120,000 per year to 50,000.
CAIR rejects the RAISE Act because it is anti-immigrant, drastically cuts immigration to the U.S. based on the false premise that immigrants take away jobs — when in fact immigrants are job creators — and seeks to slash the number of refugees entering the country in response to widespread misinformation campaigns and outright Islamophobia targeting Syrian and Iraqi refugees.
The RAISE Act also seeks to break up traditional family and support networks in immigrant communities by limiting the immigration of close relatives, while imposing financial litmus tests on U.S. citizens wanting to take care of their elderly or ill parents in need of relocating from abroad.
CAIR maintains its support for comprehensive immigration reform that provides a pathway to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants and those looking to achieve the American dream.
CAIR rejects piecemeal immigration reform measures that seek to limit legal immigration, would break up families, limit protections for refugees, or discriminates against immigrants once they reach the U.S.
CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy organization. Its mission is to protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.