Legal Immigration

Reduce Unnecessary Worker Visas

A pragmatic look at foreign worker policy


The effect of legal immigration on the United States is in proportion to its volume and composition.

Ideally, who and how many immigrants we admit would be a reflection of informed public will, legislated with deliberation and consistently enforced. The reality, however, is quite different. Our immigration system is a hodge-podge of laws, executive orders and administrative regulations that lack intention, oversight and a clear purpose as to the stated outcome.

Eliminate Visa Lottery

The Diversity Visa Program, often referred to as the “Visa Lottery” was established in 1990. Under this program, 55,000 visas are allocated annually via a random process to natives of countries that have relatively low rates of immigration to the United States. In 1997, 5,000 of these visas were reserved for individuals who qualified for legal permanent resident status under the Nicaraguan Adjustment and Central American Relief Act. Those 5,000 visas are not granted under a lottery process.

RSC Budget Proposes to Strengthen Immigration System

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The Republican Study Committee's budget proposal for FY2020 suggests reducing low-skilled immigration, requiring all businesses to use E-Verify, and increasing both border and interior enforcement. The budget outline provides a starting point for House GOP lawmakers considering the committee is comprised of 140 Republican House Members, or more than 70% of the caucus.

Bigger isn't always better

Updated: March 26th, 2019, 11:35 am

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  by  Jeremy Beck

Immigration expansionists often say that struggling American towns and cities would benefit from increased immigration that would "grow the economy." But adding people only guarantees that an economy will be bigger, not necessarily better.

Pres. Trump Continues Push for More Immigration

Pres. Trump

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In an exclusive interview with Breitbart, Pres. Trump said the country needs to import more foreign workers, but also said that he wants an immigration system that's less of a burden on American taxpayers. Since his State of the Union address, Pres. Trump has maintained a consistent call for increasing current, record-high immigration levels because of the strengthening economy.

WH Working on Immigration Package to Increase Foreign Worker Visas

Jared Kushner

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White House officials are building on Pres. Trump’s call to increase legal immigration, according to a new report from McClatchy. According to the report, Pres. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has been meeting with a number of business groups and other government officials to devise an immigration plan that would increase the number of employment based visas for foreign workers.

National Association of Manufacturers Calls for Amnesty, Foreign Worker Increases

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The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) unveiled an immigration proposal today that would grant amnesty to illegal aliens and increase the number of foreign workers imported each year. The proposal also attempts to appeal to Pres. Trump's desire to build a border wall by including a boost for border security funding.

NumbersUSA to Score House Immigration Votes

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The House of Representatives will vote on two immigration bills on Thursday -- H.R. 4760, the Securing America's Future Act, and H.R. 6136, the Goodlatte-Ryan-Denham amnesty plan. NumbersUSA told House Members on Wednesday that it will score in favor of a vote for H.R. 4760 and score against a vote for the Goodlatte-Ryan-Denham amnesty plan.

Our ads continuously declare what House negotiators are trying to ignore: MOST VOTERS WANT IMMIGRATION CUTS

Updated: November 1st, 2018, 10:23 pm
Roy Beck's Picture

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  by  Roy Beck
Americans who want immigration numbers reduced are in the majority, and they are being largely ignored by immigration policy negotiators in the U.S. House. That's the chief point of NumbersUSA's widespread advertising campaign that began around Christmas and has accelerated in June.

House Freedom Caucus Supports Rep. Posey’s SAFE for America Act

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On Monday the House Freedom Caucus announced that they would support Rep. Bill Posey’s (R-Fla.) bill the Security and Fairness Enhancement (SAFE) for America Act (H.R. 1178), which would end the diversity visa lottery program. This support comes after it was discovered that the New York City terror suspect Sayfullo Saipov entered the U.S. through the lottery program.

Sen. Grassley Asks DHS to Review Current TPS Designations

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Today Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley sent a letter to acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke asking her to review current TPS designated countries to ensure they meet the requirements. Several countries currently in the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program will be up for review in the next several months.

CIS: Number of U.S. Residents Speaking a Foreign Language at Home Hits a Record of 65.5 Million

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According to the Center of Immigration Studies (CIS) analysis of 2016 Census Bureau data the number of U.S. residents five years old and older who speak another language besides English at home has reached a record 65.5 million. This number has doubled since 1990 and tripled since 1980.

CIS: Total Immigrant Population Hits Record High of 43.7 Million in 2016

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A new Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) report analyzed the latest American Community Survey (ACS) data, conducted by the Census Bureau, and found that the immigrant population (legal and illegal) hit a record high of 43.7 million in July 2016. This is an increase of half a million since 2015, an increase of 3.8 million since 2010, and 12.6 million since 2000.

National Poll: 3-to-1 support for Trump legal immigration cuts

Updated: August 19th, 2017, 9:35 am

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  by  Roy Beck

A national poll taken just before Pres. Trump endorsed the RAISE Act in a White House event on Aug. 2 found overwhelming support for the bill's central feature -- reducing legal immigration from around one million a year to around a half-million.

Pulse Opinion Research surveyed 1,000 "likely mid-term voters" on July 24-25 and asked them how many legal immigrants should be allowed each year. The firm stated that the results had a margin of sampling error of only 3 percentage points,and had a 95% level of confidence.

New Ruling Ends Diploma Mills for H-1B Workers

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The Administrative Appeals Office (AAO) of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ruled that guest workers seeking a H-1B visa based on their advanced degree must have earned their degrees from colleges that were accredited when they received their degree. This will stop the loophole that allows foreign workers to easily obtain an advanced degree from “diploma mills” in order to be eligible for a H-1B visa.

NumbersUSA Asks DHS Secretary Not To Increase H-2B Visas in FY17

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NumbersUSA recently sent a letter to DHS Secretary John Kelly asking him not to use the authorization, given to DHS in the omnibus, to approve more H-2B visas over the current 66,000 visa cap. In May, Congress passed the provision that would allow for another 70,000 visas to be issued in the current fiscal year.

Does Trump Want to Increase Legal Immigration?

Updated: May 29th, 2017, 10:10 am

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  by  Chris Chmielenski

This week's issue of the the Economist focuses on Pres. Donald Trump's outlook on the global economy, including his thoughts on legal immigration to the United States where he said that he doesn't want to cut immigration. The interview sounded alarm bells for those seeking to reduce existing immigration levels.

New Zealand Strengthens Income Requirements for Skilled Foreign Workers

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New Zealand announced today that they have made changes to their skilled foreign worker visa program that requires immigrants to meet certain income levels to be eligible for the visa. In order to qualify as a skilled immigrant they must get a job in which they earn at least the median income, to qualify as higher skilled the immigrant will need to earn at least 150% of the median income.

USCIS & DOJ Announce Plans to Improve H-1B Process

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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) department issued a memorandum over the weekend that requires companies to prove that the computer programming job they are filling with a H-1B foreign worker meets the advanced knowledge and experience qualifications of the H-1B visa program. This will provide more scrutiny to computer programmer applications to ensure they are not being hired to do simple jobs that Americans could do.

Pew: No U.S. Industry is Made Up of a Majority of Immigrant Workers

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A new Pew Research Center report shows that there are no major U.S. industries where immigrant workers outnumber American workers. The report uses Pew’s 2014 workforce estimates and the Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey to look at all workers ages 16 and over in a civilian industry including both legal and illegal immigrants in 2014.

60 Minutes investigates How H-1B Visas Are Being Used to Replace American Workers

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60 Minutes launched an investigative report on how some U.S. companies are using the H-1B visa to bring in cheaper foreign labor and replace American workers. They interviewed several U.S. workers who not only lost their jobs but were forced to train their replacements.

Speech to Congress spurring blizzard of attention on reducing LEGAL immigration

Updated: March 20th, 2017, 9:30 am

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  by  Roy Beck

The attacks on this kind of immigration moderation started to look more like a blizzard after President Trump made strong statements to Congress Tuesday night about the need to change the legal immigration system to help American workers.

Senators Move to Cut Legal Immigration in Half

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LifeZette -- Brendan Kirby

Although illegal immigration usually dominates the debate in America, some advocacy groups argue that legal migration has a far greater impact on social services and the economy. NumbersUSA President Roy Beck in December went so far as to say the Trump administration would be a failure if it did not address chain migration.

NumbersUSA Endorses Gen. Kelly for Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin confirmation hearings this week for Pres.-elect Donald Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security nominee Gen. John Kelly. In advance of the hearing, NumbersUSA President and Founder Roy Beck sent the following letter of endorsement to Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.)

NumbersUSA endorses Sen. Jeff Sessions for Attorney General

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The Senate Judiciary Committee will begin confirmation hearings next week for Pres.-elect Donald Trump's Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. In advance of the hearing, NumbersUSA President and Founder Roy Beck sent the following letter of endorsement to Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley.

Congress Renewed EB-5 Investor Visa in CR

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At the beginning of the month Congress renewed the EB-5 visa program, which was set to expire, for another four-and-a-half months when they passed their continuing resolution. This visa program has been impaired by fraud and abuse and while most of the lawmakers agree that the program needs to be reformed they could not agree on what type of reforms and so they punted the decision to the new incoming administration and Congress.

Sen. Cotton: Make Immigration Policy Benefit American Workers

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In a New York Times op-ed entitled “Fix Immigration. It’s What Voters Want” Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., argues President-elect Trump “has a clear mandate not only to stop illegal immigration, but also to finally cut the generation-long influx of low-skilled immigrants that undermines American workers.” He says the nation needs an immigration policy that focuses less on powerful special interests and more on everyone else.

Puzder: 'I will fiercely defend American workers'

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Pres.-elect Donald Trump's nomination of Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary alarmed immigration-reduction activists with his past support for the Gang of 8 amnesty bill that would have tripled the number of lifetime work permits issued over 10 years. But Puzder released a statement over the weekend declaring his commitment to Trump's campaign pledge to protect American workers and their wages from foreign worker competition.

Report: Carnival Joins List of Companies Forcing American Workers to Train Guest Worker Replacements

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Breitbart reports Carnival Cruise Line workers in Florida, California and Washington State were told they will be terminated on February 3rd and must train their foreign replacements. Carnival denies the workers’ claims but the company admitted it is shifting technology operations to Capgemini, a French firm that has helped U.S. companies import thousands of guest workers to fill middle-class jobs.

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