Tens of thousands of the wealthiest immigrants could provide funding for President Trump’s promised border wall under a new congressional Republican proposal.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants to eliminate a program that allows “diversity immigrants” — individuals who hail “from countries with historically low rates of immigration to the United States,” per the State Department — to enter the United States following a lottery selection process. The diversity immigrants would be replaced by 55,000 people who could pay a $1 million fee to obtain a visa. That money would be allocated for border security, which Rohrabacher says should start with funding the construction of the wall on the southwestern border the country.
“We want to make sure that Donald Trump, as president of the United States, has the resources to fulfill his pledge about building a wall,” Rohrabacher told the Washington Examiner.
He isn’t the only Republican to get creative about finding money for the border wall, which remained unfunded in the latest round of spending negotiations to keep the government open. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., recently proposed using money confiscated in the course of drug investigations to pay for the wall. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz refined that idea to target money taken from convicted drug criminals, rather than individuals who haven’t been charged with a crime.
Rohrabacher takes more direct aim at changing immigration policy beyond simply raising border funding. He is opposed to the diversity program as it is constructed and hopes a system that favors wealthy immigrants would bring talented people to the United States. “That is a stupid way to select 55,000 people to enter the United States,” he said. “It’s stupid, because, by definition, ‘lottery’ means you are not using a thought process to determine who should be let in, based on what’s good for our country.”
With that, Rohrabacher is tangling with one of the most powerful elected Democrats. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sponsored the diversity visa program in an immigration package that offered amnesty to Irish immigrants who came illegally to the United States.
”The reform will be a shot in the arm for New York, whose economy has always thrived on immigration,” Schumer, then a House Democrat from Brooklyn, said in 1990.
Rohrabacher makes a similar argument for embracing wealthy immigrants, even if Schumer could be expected to lead a filibuster of the legislation if it were to pass the House. “All over the world we have people who have risen to the top and are the cream of the crop in terms of entrepreneurial skills, and that’s how they’ve made it,” he said. “The end result is that we have a high[er] quality of people, because they have to be somewhat efficient as entrepreneurs or people of education in order to have that million dollars to begin with.”
His plan would grant legal status to anyone of “good character” who paid the fee — no drug kingpins or corrupt foreign officials allowed — with the guarantee of citizenship within two years to those who meet the requirements for naturalization. “There’s nothing wrong with selling any product as long as it’s a good product,” Rohrabacher said. “Is it bad to sell citizenship rather than give it away? No, not if that money should be used for border security, which includes making our immigration system work more efficiently.”
The California Republican thinks GOP lawmakers shouldn’t worry about Democratic attacks over eliminating the diversity program, either. “The criteria for coming to our country should be what you can do for the United States of America to make it better for people who live here who are Americans,” he said. “If you are detracting rather than adding to the value of the country, then you should not be here.”
And if they’re not convinced, he might have a powerful ally to convince them to take up the proposal. Rohrabacher said President Trump was “fascinated” by the idea when they discussed it during a recent meeting at the White House. “He immediately called in two or three other guys who were obviously top policy guys there in his personal staff,” Rohrabacher said. “I’m going to be moving to try to get in touch with the White House and get them to goose the system a little bit.”
