Merit System

I agree with Long Kieu's article Blog Stage #7: Trump's New Immigration Policy about President Trump’s visa policy. In my previous blog post “Trump vs. Foreign Students,” I discussed the consequences of the “Buy American, Hire American” executive order that would be brought upon aspiring students outside of the United States. I expressed my disapproval on the order that would select only skilled immigrants with high salaries to give visas to.

Similarly, the Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act is essentially a merit-based point system in which the applicants with the highest points are granted a visa in the United States. With this act, applicants are awarded points according to their age, education, occupation, work experience, and language skills; they must have at least 30 points in order to even apply.

According to the American Immigration Council, “Priority is given to prime working ages. Someone aged 18 through 21 gets six points, ages 22 through 25 gets eight points and ages 26 through 30 get 10 points. The points then decrease, with someone aged 31 through 35 getting eight points, 36 through 40 getting six points, ages 41 through 45 getting four points and ages 46 through 50 getting two points.” This is age discrimination; people who are young or old are not “fit” for the society. America is not a perfect society, nor are we trying to make everyone perfect. Certainly, people are not “better” just because they are in their prime age. There are many people who are in their late 20s and early 30s who are unemployed and unmotivated.

Additionally, this system sounds similar to the college admissions process in America. Applicants who have more on their resume, more to show to the admissions office have a higher probability of getting into their desired college. I believe that granting visas to immigrants should not become a competition, as it certainly will if people will be crushing each other to earn as many points as possible. We take pride in a nation that welcomes immigrants and is the Land of Opportunity. How can we claim that we are such a nation if we discriminate people from opportunities based on their merits?