Donald Trump campaigned on an anti-immigration platform, and the first weeks of his presidency involved efforts to ban refugees and travel to the United States from seven Muslim-majority nations. In early August, Sen. Tom Cotton (R.–Ark.) and Sen. David Perdue (R–Ga.) introduced a White House–backed bill to cut legal immigration in half over the next 10 years. The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act (or RAISE Act) would halve legal immigration from approximately 1 million people per year to 500,000, and it would institute a points-based system to prioritize high-skilled immigrants.

Such a bill may have difficulty finding support in Congress, and it is unclear whether the legislation has the votes necessary for passage. Even some members of the president’s party have expressed concerns about the proposal. In a statement on social media, Sen. Jeff Flake (R–Ariz.) noted, “I support a merit-based system, but I’m concerned that drastic cuts to leg