Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville has introduced a sweeping proposal to reshape the U.S. legal immigration system, eliminating the Diversity Visa Lottery, restricting several family-based pathways to permanent residence, and replacing existing employment-based green card categories with a points system. The Americans First Immigration Act would make some of the most significant changes to legal immigration contemplated in the legislation by ending green card routes for parents of U.S. citizens and several other family categories while creating a new system for employment-based immigrants based on factors including salary, education, English proficiency, age, military service, and extraordinary achievement. The Senate legislation, introduced by Tuberville of Alabama, follows a House version introduced in April by Republican Representative Barry Moore of Alabama and co-sponsored by Republican Representatives Glenn Grothman, Wesley Hunt and Troy Nehls.
The Senate version retains the core structure of the House proposal but makes several substantive changes, including expanded immigration attestations, tougher penalties for some employer violations and revised transition rules for people already in the immigration system. The proposal would make green cards harder to obtain for many immigrants by eliminating several existing family- and employment-based pathways and requiring employment applicants to meet new thresholds for factors including salary, English proficiency, and age. "Our current immigration system does little to evaluate the type of people we let in—it’s a free-for-all," Tuberville said in a news release.
"Coming to the United States is a privilege, and we need to ensure that anyone immigrating to our country is willing to go by our laws and contribute to our society. We can’t allow this current system to continue prioritizing foreign workers who aren’t willing to assimilate to our values." Tuberville is also the Republican nominee for Alabama governor, having won the GOP primary in May, and will face former Democratic Senator Doug Jones in the November 3 election. The bill would eliminate the Diversity Visa Lottery and establish an annual allocation of 3,000 immigrant visas for religious workers.
It would bar diversity visas from being issued after enactment. The legislation would remove parents from the immediate-relative category for U.S. citizens, leaving spouses and children, and eliminate several existing family-preference categories. Its remaining family-sponsored category would cover spouses and children of lawful permanent residents.
The changes would also reach people already in the immigration system. Pending petitions in the affected family categories could not be approved, while people with petitions approved before enactment would be subject to a transition provision limiting the number of visas that could still be issued. Under current law, parents of U.S. citizens who are at least 21 are classified as immediate relatives and are not subject to the annual numerical limits that apply to family-preference categories.
The bill would replace existing employment-based green card categories with a competitive points system beginning with an annual worldwide level of 192,000 visas. That number would be reduced based on the number of people who were not detained or were released in the previous fiscal year despite being subject to mandatory detention under provisions specified in the bill. Applicants would need a U.S. job offer, at least 16 points, an English proficiency score in at least the fifth decile and would have to be between 18 and 51 when they applied.
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