Honor the late Barbara Jordan by fulfilling her commission’s recommendations.

The late civil rights icon, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan, would have been 88 years old this week. Later in her life, she chaired President Clinton’s U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform. In it’s final report, the commission recommended sweeping changes to our immigration system, changes that would protect American workers and ensure that immigration serves the national interest instead of narrow special interests. Her commission’s recommendations included:

  • a scaling back of family chain migration by implementing a prioritization of nuclear family relationships to determine who will be admitted through family-based immigration. Spouses and minor children of US citizens would continue to be admitted as first priority; and the elimination of other family-based admission categories;

  • focusing on the admission of highly-skilled individuals whose skills would benefit our society. The Commission recommended the elimination of the admission of unskilled workers and elimination of the diversity visa lottery;

  • an immigration admissions level of 550,000 per year; and

  • stressing that deportation is crucial. “Credibility in immigration policy can be summed up in one sentence: those who should get in, get in; those who should be kept out, are kept out; and those who should not be here will be required to leave.”

Barbara Jordan and her colleagues recognized that immigration must serve the national interest and not the interests of those who want to employ cheap labor. Continuing to allow people to come to this country illegally, continuing to allow businesses to hire illegal labor, and continuing to allow people to come to this country without taking into account their skills harms American workers.

I urge you to honor Barbara Jordan, a selfless civil rights icon who fought for the wellbeing of all Americans, and see her commission’s recommendations through.

Greg Raven, Apple Valley, CA

P.S. Secure our borders. Stop the influx of immigrants and refugees. Implement the Congressionally-mandated biometric entry/exit system. Evict those here illegally. End chain migration. End birthright citizenship. End the visa lottery. End amnesty. End asylum. End catch-and-release. Make E-Verify mandatory. And more! Illegal immigration is a weapon of mass destruction!