If Miguel wants to immigrate, the RAISE Act would hurt
When Miguel Regalado snacks on a piece of bread covered with cream cheese, he looks like the happiest person in the world. For Miguel, cream cheese is a delicacy. He can’t get cream cheese in Cuba.
He can’t get cereal in Cuba, either. Or a toaster. Or an iron. Shoes and soap are scarce there, too.
Miguel, my wife’s cousin, makes his living driving a tour bus in Havana. He is honest, humble and hard-working. When he gets time off from work, his favorite getaway destination is Florida. He has family and friends in Tallahassee, Lake City and Gainesville.
Miguel has no current plans to try to relocate. He loves his native country. But the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act (ak a the RAISE Act), if it ever becomes law, could be problematic should he change his mind.
The RAISE Act, which is sponsored by Republican Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia, would eliminate the Diversity Lottery Visas program, lower the number of family-based visas, and restructure the employment-visa system into a points system that prioritizes younger immigrants — ages 26 to 30 preferred — with higher education, and those with high-English proficiency and high-salary jobs.
Under the RAISE Act’s merit system, Miguel would fall short of the 30 points needed for immigration eligibility. He would lose points for his age and low-skill occupation. He’d lose points for English language ability. He’d fail in the area of markers of entrepreneurial initiative and extraordinary achievement. He would not meet the RAISE Act’s peculiar criteria of awarding points to “extraordinary” applicants who have won a Nobel Prize or an Olympic medal.
Basically, if the legislation passes, the wealthy and connected will be favored over the familybased immigrants — well, most of the wealthy and connected.
According to The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell, if President Donald Trump were trying to enter the country under the RAISE Act, he too, like Miguel, would be blocked. The columnist checked on points-based immigrant eligibility in a hypothetical test case, and Trump scored only 18 points. The analysis added that, with a legal temporary visa and help with the English language from Melania, he might meet the 30-point requirement on a second try.
A Nobel Peace Prize would also put Trump over the top. But what are the chances of that happening?
Is there a senior golf event at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo?
My wife, Anabel Perez, legally immigrated to the United States from Cuba 17 years ago. She learned to speak English fairly quickly, earned her U.S. citizenship, and has been recognized as the employee of the month on more than one occasion at the Doubletree Hotel in Tallahassee. (I suppose, transposing RAISE Act lingo for her line of work, one might refer to Anabel as an extraordinary banquet supervisor.)
In the good old immigration days, Anabel got in.
Miguel might have to do something extraordinary like discovering a cure for Lewy body dementia.
The RAISE Act puts an annual cap on permanent-resident status for refugee admissions at 50,000. In a hypothetical numbers game, if it were up to me — if I were tasked with picking between Trump and Miguel, only one of them getting to stay — the choice would be an easy one.
I’d go with the tour-bus driver from Cuba.