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Dear Jack,


Given the importance of immigration, I thought I should share an article I just wrote for the Washington Examiner on the reforms America needs.

In his first 100 days, President Donald Trump has made significant strides tackling the problem of illegal immigration. Little has yet been done, however, to overhaul America’s dysfunctional system of legal immigration.

The United States is the preferred destination for would-be migrants from every continent and culture. Yet, given how many people want to come here, America does a remarkably bad job selecting the brightest and the best.

The U.S. grants green cards to roughly 1 million people annually, but surprisingly few are given on the basis of merit or because the recipient possesses specialized skills.

More than half of the green cards are awarded through the family-based immigration system. This tends to favor the relatives of recently naturalized US citizens from Mexico, India, and China. While family ties matter, this means from the outset that over half of green cards go to those with the right relatives, rather than the right skills.

In a typical year, only about a fifth of green cards go to employment-based applicants. While these employment-based programs are supposed to attract skilled workers, in reality those approved are selected more by chance than merit.

Most temporary Employment-based visas are H-1B visas (85,000 a year). Intended for specialty occupations, the H-1B scheme has in the past been gamed by outsourcing firms, which flooded what is essentially a lottery system with entries—often for fairly low-skill tech jobs—securing cheap labor, primarily from India and China. A backlog of H-1B holders awaiting permanent status further clogs the pipeline.

Only those admitted via the O1 (extraordinary ability) and L1 (intracompany transfer) schemes are selected more by merit than chance. Fewer than 5 percent of those granted permanent residence came to America this way.

Then there’s the Diversity Visa program, which is also a lottery, and admits around 50,000 people yearly from “underrepresented” nations like Egypt, Uzbekistan and Pakistan through random selection. Since 1995, 1.5 million have entered this way, with minimal vetting.

Nor is there much merit based selection when it comes to schemes such as Jo Biden’s infamous CHNV Parole initiative, which in 2023 allowed in 30,00 people a month from places like Haiti and Venezuela.

America’s immigration system is flawed, not just because it’s a hodge podge of programs, but because it has been built on a deeply flawed philosophy.

America’s elites have created an immigration system in the belief that human nature is universal. People from every background, they want to believe, are interchangeable. Its thanks to this fairy tale that the United States literally selects at random individuals from places like Mogadishu and settles them in Michigan, all the time expecting they will be like every other Midwesterner. That’s not the way it’s working out in Dearborn or Hamtramck.

America has long been a melting pot, but as Europe is learning in the wake of large scale Muslim immigration, some parts of the melting pot will not melt unless there’s a degree of cultural compatibility.

Cultural compatibility matters, and America needs an immigration system that selects for it, as well as for skills.

Immigrants, as we all know, can be highly entrepreneurial. That’s a reason to be more, rather than less, selective. While over half of all US unicorn companies worth over a billion dollars were founded by immigrants, according to a National Foundation for American Policy study, these enterprising immigrants came from a select number of countries, including India, Israel, Britain and Europe.

America needs to replace the H-1B visa with a greatly expanded, if less onerous, O1 type scheme, prioritizing individuals with exceptional talent. The aim should be to offer entry to real quality applicants, not use the immigration system to hire half price software engineers.

At the same time, America should eliminate the Diversity Immigrant Visa Program entirely. So what if some countries have more to offer America and are therefore overrepresented against others? Not all cultures are equal. Nor are they all equally compatible with the Western way of life.

America should not shy away from capping visas from Muslim-majority countries given the challenges of cultural integration. America should proactively revoke the status of anyone supporting extremist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, or Hizb ut-Tahrir, or who holds views about apostacy that are incompatible with the First Amendment.

As an immigrant to America, I found that my daughter did not know the Pledge of Allegiance on her first day at school. We made sure she knew the words as well anyone in her class on her second day. I want every immigrant to feel as fortunate as I know I am to be here.

Have a wonderful weekend!
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Warm regards,

Douglas Carswell
President & CEO

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