U.S. Senate candidate Katie Britt released a memo Tuesday outlining her position on “supporting American wage growth and reforming our nation’s legal immigration system to benefit American workers and Alabama families.”
“I will fight to end President Biden’s self-created border crisis by securing full funding to finish the wall, entirely reinstating both the Remain in Mexico program and public charge rule, re-establishing the ‘safe third country’ agreements for aliens claiming asylum, and immediately ending DHS’s dangerous catch and release policies,” Britt said in the memo. “While absolutely critical, fixing our crisis of illegal immigration is only half the problem. For decades, American workers have seen stagnant wage growth. Under President Biden, wages are growing at a rate lower than inflation, which is crushing hardworking Alabamians and retirees.”
Britt said the decline in wages coincides with the passage of Senator Ted Kennedy’s 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act.
“Before this bill passed, America accepted about 300,000 immigrants each year. This legislation removed common-sense numerical caps and created a chain-migration system, leading to more than one million immigrants entering America every single year,” Britt said. “This has driven down the wages of Alabamians, especially those without college degrees.”
In the memo, Britt outlines a four-step immigration plan she said she’ll introduce on day one if elected Senator:
- Reduce overall legal immigration to a sensible level and transition to a new system that prioritizes skills and merit over family-ties.
- Overhaul guestworker programs that depress wages and rob American workers of job opportunities.
- Permanently address the deeply flawed and corrupt EB-5 investor visa program, which allows shady foreign investors like Russian oligarchs to obtain green cards.
- Require all employers to use E-Verify – this would not only protect American workers, but also deter illegal immigration more than any other enforcement program or policy change.
Britt also said she would sponsor Sen. Tom Cotton’s RAISE Act, which would:
- Reduce the number of immigrants allowed into America by 50%
- End the chain migration system
- Create a merit-based points immigration system, like Canada and Australia, so America is accepting immigrants who will raise our average wage base, not reduce it
- Eliminate the diversity visa lottery
Finally, Britt said she would introduce companion legislation to the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2021 (H.R. 140) and companion legislation to the American Tech Workforce Act (H.R. 6206) that would:
- Clarify that birthright citizenship applies to persons born to citizens or those lawfully present in the United States
- “Stop Big Tech’s exploitation of the United States’ immigration system.”
