Washington: US President Donald Trump has endorsed a legislation that would drastically cut the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country and implement “merit-based” visa scheme which could benefit highly-educated and technology professionals from countries like India. "That is why we are here today: Merit-based," said Trump, who was joined in the White House Roosevelt Room by the bill's Senate sponsors, Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga. Cotton, of Arkansas, and Perdue, of Georgia, initially unveiled the “Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act” in February, arguing that the bill will “help raise American workers’ wages by restoring legal immigration levels to their historical norms and rebalancing the system toward employment-based visas and immediate-family household members.”

“We are taking action to fix some of the shortcomings in our legal immigration system,” Perdue said at the time. Trump said the RAISE Act “ends chain migration and replaces our low-skilled system with a new points-based system for receiving a green card.”

“This competitive application process will favor applicants who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy,” he added.
United States President Donald Trump, together with Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue, unveils the RAISE Act, a plan that would, if passed, reduce legal immigration to the U.S. by half each year, and implement a "merit-based system" prioritizing skilled workers, instead of the current family-based chain migration system.