President Donald Trump backed an immigration bill that would both stunt economic growth and reduce jobs in the U.S. by over 1 million, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton business school.
In ten years, the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy, or RAISE Act, would reduce growth by .7 percent and eliminate 1.3 million jobs, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model.
"The domestic worker participation rate won't increase enough to fill the jobs that would have been held by immigrants who are no longer allowed in the country," the report reads.
Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and David Perdue, R-Ga., introduced the bill, which CNBC reports is expected to reduce legal immigration by half. It would place job skills and other abilities ahead of family connections for those looking to obtain permanent legal residency.
The two wrote an op-ed in USA Today Tuesday defending their bill, arguing that it will improve the economy, as it will "reduce our annual immigration levels by half after ten years and reorient it toward high-skilled workers, which is just what our economy needs."
Cotton's communications director Caroline Rabbitt told CNBC that the study "misses nearly half of all green cards," and that "this gross undercounting of green cards is an understandable mistake for people new to immigration, but it's embarrassing for purported 'experts' and shows that their projections are unreliable."
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