Today, the White House, along with Sens. Tom Cotton and David Perdue, unveiled the RAISE Act, a measure focused on reforming the legal immigration system in the United States. Dr. James Carafano, a vice president at The Heritage Foundation who has worked on border and immigration policies for many years, released the following statement in response to the unveiling of the legislation:

“Legal immigration reform has been off Washington’s to-do list far too long. Heritage has long argued for legal immigration policies designed to serve America in the 21st century, not those tailored to past decades. We have long favored ending blanket chain-migration, and replacing it with a rational, skills based-migration system. We have looked at the lessons from the Canadian and Australian models for reform to see what might best serve the United States’ immigration system. The RAISE Act seeks to reduce low skill immigration which is very costly to U.S. taxpayers, while promoting a modernized, skills-based migration system that makes sense for all Americans. We look forward to Congress taking this issue seriously, rolling up its sleeves and delivering legislation that establishes a legal immigration system designed for the demands of the 21st century.”