Trump Shows Cuts to Chain Migration Visas in Early Months

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The Trump Administration slightly lowered the number of foreign nationals entering the United States through a slew of family chain migration visas.

In the last full three months of former President Obama’s term, more than 10,000 foreign nationals were given permission to come to the U.S. on the K-1 visa, otherwise known as the fiancée visa.

The Trump Administration cut the number of visas by almost half, with more than 6,800 admitted in the new administration’s first three months.

Other relatives of legal immigrants who come on family-based visas was only slightly cut during the same period.

Under these immediate and relative visas, extended family members are given preference over merit-based foreign nationals trying to immigrate to the U.S. Altogether, this process for legal immigration is known as the family chain migration, which immigration hawks adamantly oppose.

During Obama’s last months in office, he allowed nearly more than 202,000 relatives of legal immigrants into the U.S. For Trump’s first three months in office, those numbers barely reduced to just below 200,000.

On the issue of reducing family chain migration, the Trump Administration has yet to take any substantive measures internally, with experts like David North saying the White House most recently missed an opportunity to shut down the K-1 fiancé visa, as Breitbart Texas reported.

“For a few minutes, it looked like the Department of State had done the right thing with the oft-abused K visa (for fiancées of citizens),” North wrote for the Center for Immigration Studies. “It initially declared that the six-nation travel ban should cover aliens (largely women) arriving with this visa, and then, a few minutes later, State decided that the fiancées fell into the category of those ‘who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship’ here.”

In Congress, there have yet to be any measures taken to reduce legal immigration levels or end family chain migration, though, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has proposed legislation to do both.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.

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