Legislation introduced intended to raise American workers' wages by limiting legal immigration

President Donald Trump in his first speech to a joint session of Congress said he would protect American workers, not let them "be taken advantage of" any longer and "bring back millions of jobs."

To do that, the legal immigration system needs to become merit-based, Trump said.

"It's a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially," Trump said Feb. 28. "Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule … Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, we will have so many more benefits.  It will save countless dollars, raise workers' wages, and help struggling families — including immigrant families — enter the middle class."

Currently, the majority of immigrants arriving in the United States legally come to reunite with family members.

On Feb. 13, Republican senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas and David Perdue of Georgia introduced legislation to cut legal immigration from about 1 million a year to about 638,000 in the bill's first year and to about half a million by its 10th year.

The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment (RAISE) Act would help promote higher wages for Americans, the senators said.

"As immigrant labor has flooded the country, working-class wages have collapsed ... No doubt automation and globalization have also affected wages, but mass immigration accelerates these trends with surplus labor, which of course decreases wages," Cotton wrote in a New York Times op-ed December 2016, which prompted a lengthy rebuttal from the libertarian Cato Institute.

Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, on March 7 said the president was meeting with Cotton and Perdue to discuss merit-based immigration reforms, which Trump mentioned in his speech to Congress.

Pending legislative changes, wage increases and metrics showing Americans are hired first, we rate this promise In the Works.