S. 1103 · 116th Congress
RAISE Act
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Never voted on. It didn't reach a floor vote before the 116th Congress ended, so it expired. A bill has to be introduced again to be considered in a new Congress.
R
CottonSponsor4 cosponsors · 4 R
2 signed on when it was introduced; the rest joined later. Cosponsors who withdrew aren't shown.
Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act or the RAISE Act
What it does: CRS summary · Introduced in Senate · Apr 10, 2019
Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act or the RAISE Act
This bill eliminates the diversity visa program, replaces employment-based immigration programs with a points-based system, and imposes various limits on various types of immigration.
Aliens that reach the minimum number of points may apply for a points-based visa. Points are awarded for various characteristics including age, English language proficiency, education level, and investments made in the United States. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shall periodically invite the highest scoring applicants to petition for visas.
The bill limits eliminates various preference allocations (visa categories subject to various annual caps) for family-sponsored immigrant visas, such as those for the adult children of U.S. citizens. Only the spouses and children of U.S. citizens shall qualify as immediate relatives, whereas currently parents also qualify (visas for immediate relatives are not subject to direct numerical caps). The bill creates a nonimmigrant visa for such alien parents.
The bill reduces the baseline annual cap for family-sponsored visas from 480,000 to 88,000 and revises the methods for calculating the cap. It also imposes a limit of 50,000 refugees admitted in any fiscal year.
An alien who received needs-based public benefits shall not be naturalized as a U.S. citizen until the individual who signed the affidavit of support for the alien has reimbursed the federal government for such benefits.
The bill imposes various reporting requirements related to the points-based system.
Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov
About this bill and sources
Official title: RAISE Act
Also known as: Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act
Latest action (Apr 10, 2019): Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
Policy area: Immigration · Origin: Senate · Introduced: Apr 10, 2019
Official page on Congress.gov · Bill text (GovInfo) · Status record (XML)
No recorded floor vote found.