Why Trump’s “Merit-Based” Immigration Policy Will Hurt Women
March 9, 2017As immigration raids continue to occur across the nation, the Trump administration has announced several new policies which would shift our immigration system to be increasingly merit-based.
Aside from his usual calls to criminalize undocumented immigrants, during his speech to Congress he proposed an approach that would prioritize highly skilled and educated workers. While this proposal is overtly classist, Colorlines writer Deepa Iyer explains how it is also sexist and would predominantly benefit young men who typically make up the majority of skilled workers coming into the country, while penalizing women for engaging in “lower skilled” work.