President Donald Trump has announced a new immigration policy that will seek to shift attention away from low-skilled labor. It’s called the Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, RAISE, which Katie noted would amount to the biggest overhaul in immigration policy since the 1960s. “Struggling American families deserve an immigration system that puts their needs first. The RAISE Act ends chain migration and replaces our low-skilled system with a new points-based system,” said President Trump in the Roosevelt Room this morning.
Well, that didn’t sit well with CNN’s Jim Acosta, who decided to spar with Stephen Miller, senior aide to President Trump, over aspects of the policy, specifically the emphasis on high-skills and knowing English. Acosta said the new policy direction violates what the Statue of Liberty has stood for, which devolved into an intense war of words. Miller accused Acosta of having a cosmopolitan bias, while asking when the Statute of Liberty law of the land was violated. When we allowed 300,000 people to enter the country in 1970? When we allowed 500,000 in during the 1990s? “Tell me what years meet Jim Acosta’s definition of the Statute of Liberty poem law of the land?” barked Miller. Acosta accused the Trump White House of having a “press 1 for English” direction that is not in keeping with past immigration policy.
“That is one of the most outrageous, insulting, ignorant, and foolish things you’ve ever said. The notion that you think this is a racist bill is so wrong and so insulting,” said Miller. “This is an amazing moment that you think only people from Great Britain and Australia would speak English is so insulting to millions of hard-working immigrants who do speak English from all over the world,” he added.
