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US President Trump proposes radical Green Card policy change, Caribbean residents demand similar measure from own governments
#UnitedStates, January 12, 2018 – Washington, DC – Newly touted Green Card reforms are billed as having the power to bolster the competitive edge of the United States of America and restore trust between its People and Government. President Donald Trump, flanked by Senator Tom Cotton and Senator David Perdue on Thursday at White House unveiled a proposal for sweeping and significant changes to the country’s Immigration Policy, said to be the first such changes in half a century.
“For decades the United States was operating and has operated a very low skilled immigration system, issuing record numbers of Green Cards to low-wage immigrants. This policy has placed substantial pressure on American workers, tax payers and community resources, among those hit the hardest in recent years have been immigrants, and very importantly, minority workers competing for jobs against brand new arrivals and it has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our workers,” he said.
While there are already naysayers weighing in on the impact of this more stringent and selective policy proposal, Mr. Trump said the change is a demonstration of compassion for American citizens which puts the working family’s needs first. The President is also confident that the legislative proposal will result in migrant workers who are more successful in the United States.
“The RAISE Act ends chain migration and replaces our low skill system with a new point-based system for receiving a Green Card, this competitive application process will favor applicants who speak English, can financially support themselves and their families and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy. The RAISE ACT prevents immigrants and new migrants from collecting welfare and protects US workers from being displaced.”
It is a measure which president Trump explained was mandated by the American voters. However, more than Americans are sounding off on the legislative proposal. Magnetic Media in testing the temperature of Caribbean region residents on the subject found that people support the message and some are weary of the messenger.
“I have been watching him (Trump) for a while and watching his actions and my thing is he has an issue with brown and black people. I feel honestly that he is actually racist…he has problems with the Hispanics, he has problems with the Muslim countries and so I figure that (proposed new RAISE Act) is to target the brown and black people. But I agree that even we, in The Bahamas are losing our sovereignty to the foreigners and our government has to get tough and that has to stop.”
The man speaking to us via WhatsApp is resident in the Bahamas’ second city, Grand Bahama and adds that he objects to the other comments reported to have come from the mouth of President Donald Trump related to Haiti and a few other nations.
While those reported demeaning comments from Trump are grabbing some headlines and sparking vigorous debate, it seems the reports on the remarks are more designed to steal the spotlight of the new policy proposed and drafted by Senators Cotton and Purdue; still many in the region are paying attention and hoping their own country will follow suit.
“If the Premier of the Turks and Caicos was more hard-nosed about immigration, this place would be better off because there are too many people who are here on work permits and a lot of them need to go. There are too many Filipinos here, too many Jamaicans, too many Haitians here and a lot of them are preventing locals from being able to find a job. Turks and Caicos really gatta take a hard-nosed approach to Immigration.”
In the second half of 2017, both The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos announced controversial measures to stem the flow of illegal and legal migration, including a freeze on new work permit applications and traveler visas to the TCI and in The Bahamas a December 31, 2017 deadline for illegal migrants to leave the country or face deportation.
A former resident of the region and UK citizen explained, “Its got to be the way forward. You can’t have open boarders to be world. Just nuts,” he said, “The other week I spoke to a Haitian guy in Provo and he has – wait for it – nine children from five different women. No wife as yet, he told me he hasn’t found the right one. I told him to go and have it (penis) chopped off!”
The man commenting to Magnetic Media says the United Kingdom is also favoring a point system for immigrants post Brexit.
In 2014, a report by the Migration Policy Institute in the United States revealed that there were four million Caribbean immigrants in the United States, which was nine per cent of the 42.2 million immigrants in the country. Leading the top five were Cuba, at number one; Dominican Republic was second; Jamaica was third; next was Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago rounded out the top five. The Bahamas was eighth on that 2014 list, with Turks and Caicos having no distinct spot on the chart.
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Photo credit: Wikipedia & VOA news