The American Action Forum has released “Building a Pro-Growth Legal Immigration System,” a new proposal for reforming immigration to the United States. AAF’s President Douglas Holtz-Eakin and Director of Immigration and Trade Policy Jacqueline Varas designed the reform to shift the United States away from prioritizing non-economic immigration and toward focusing legal immigration on the demands of a productive labor force.

The proposed points-based system is designed to advance entrepreneurship, augment productivity gains, fill skills gaps, and combat demographically driven labor force declines by:

• Giving businesses access to the workers they need in the current environment of labor shortages and record-low unemployment rates;
• Ensuring a means for both higher- and lower-skilled individuals who want to contribute to the U.S. economy—and are qualified to do so—to come to the United States legally; and
• Continuing to honor family relationships, but requiring qualified applicants to possess characteristics ensuring they will be productive members of the labor force.

For full proposal details and related information, please click here.