Trump’s plan takes on legal immigration
Sol Collins Jr.
Mr. Sol Collins Jr., 82, of Rome, Ga., passed away on January 21, 2018. Services for Mr. Collins will be held on Saturday, January 27, 2018, at 11:30 a.m. at Wright Memorial Chapel with the Rev. Elijah Collins Jr. officiating. The interment will follow the services in Morning View Cemetery.
Wright Memorial Mortuary has been entrusted with the services for Mr. Sol Collins Jr. NORTH CHAPEL
Millard Grady Smith
Mr. Millard Grady Smith, age 71, of Rome, passed away on Thursday, January 25, 2018, in a local medical facility.
Mr. Smith was born on February 19, 1946, in Rome, Ga., son of the late Ed Smith and the late Ulee Moon Smith. He graduated from Coosa High School and several years later established his own roofing company, Dixie Roofing. Prior to retirement, Mr. Smith worked hard as a roofer for over 30 years. He was an easygoing man and enjoyed spending time with his family and friends. Millard never met a stranger and was the life of the party at his lake house. He is lovingly remembered for being a great dad and granddad, and always welcoming everyone onto the porch. Mr. Smith was preceded in death by five brothers, Robert Smith, Tim Smith, James Smith, David Smith, and William Smith, and by a sister, Ruby Cherry.
Survivors include his daughter, Crystal D. Smith, Rome; a son, Jamie Tate, Rome; two grandchildren, Rebekah Tate and Dustin Tate; a sister, Dorothy Bailey, Rome; a brother, Frank Smith, Rome; several nieces and nephews.
The family will receive friends on Sunday, January 28, 2018, at Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, North Chapel from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests memorial contributions be made to the, Melanoma Research Foundation, 1411 K Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, D.C. 20005, or to www. melanoma.org.
Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, North Chapel, has charge of the arrangements.
The most contentious piece of President Donald Trump’s new proposal to protect the so-called Dreamers has nothing to do with them. It’s the plan’s potential impact on legal immigration that sparked fierce Democratic opposition Friday and appeared to sink chances for a bipartisan deal in Congress.
The proposal outlined Thursday by the White House would end much family-based immigration and the visa lottery program, moves that some experts estimate could cut legal immigration into the United States nearly in half.
The plan would protect some 700,000 young immigrants from deportation and provide a pathway to citizenship, an offer the White House described as a concession to Democrats. But it also represented a victory for immigration hawks and a seismic shift for immigration policy in the U.S., which has long centered on the question of how to stop illegal border crossings, not how to curb legal immigration.
“It’s an enormous change in rhetoric and position,” said Alex Nowrasteh of the conservative Cato Institute. “Forever, people have talked about illegal immigration and now this anti-legal immigration position is standard for much of the Republican Party.”
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, dismissed the plan Friday as a “wish list” for hardliners. He acknowledged the bipartisan common ground on protections for the immigrants now shielded by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. But he accused Trump of using them as “a tool to tear apart our legal immigration system and adopt the wish list that anti-immigration hardliners have advocated for years.”
Democrats forced a government shutdown last weekend in attempt to expedite negotiations over the Dreamers, who are set to lose protection from deportation in March. Trump’s proposal was the first detailed public offer from the White House.
On Friday, the president accused Schumer of complicating the talks. “DACA has been made increasingly difficult by the fact that Cryin’ Chuck Schumer took such a beating over the shutdown that he is unable to act on immigration!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
By including curbs to legal immigration in his proposal, Trump elevated ideas that have been advocated by a slice of hardliners for decades, although with little momentum in Washington. Trump has framed the proposals as an attempt to prioritize immigrants with specific skills rather than family connections.
The U.S. takes in about 1 million legal immigrants annually, and nearly 13 percent of the country’s residents were born overseas, the highest share in nearly a century. Immigration hawks argue that the influx drives down native-born Americans’ wages and strains public resources.
“When you’re bringing in the equivalent of a major metropolitan area every year, that has an impact on every aspect of life,” said Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform, which is the other major group advocating for fewer immigrants.
But many economists and businesses say there’s little data showing that immigration is bad for the economy, and much showing it is a net benefit. Though a few have found immigrants can depress some workers’ wages, most believe there’s little negative impact on U.S. workers. In fact, because native-born U.S. citizens are having fewer and fewer children, some warn the U.S. faces a looming worker shortage and that immigrants are essential to keep the country growing. President Donald Trump Doug Walker / RN-T
Work continues Friday on the new RaceTrac gas station and convenience store that is being built at the intersection of Martha Berry Highway and the Armuchee Connector, just north of Mount Berry Mall in Armuchee.