America, the country built by immigrants and founded on justice, is headed down an unjust path. With a plan to cut legal immigration in half, we are putting a lid on the melting pot that this country once was.

Halving the number of immigrants being let inside the United States would not only be devastating to families, but it would also propose severe economic problems. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, agrees and stated that “the idea of cutting legal immigration in half and skewing the green cards to one area of the economy, I think, is bad for the economy” (Politico). Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, also included that “in the United States today, our population would not be stable if it was not for legal immigration” (Politico). Their opinions are backed up by legitimate statistics.

The Penn Wharton Budget Model uses data to simulate the future economy of America. Managing Director, Kimberly Burham states that the model showed that the “GDP would actually be 2 percent smaller than it would otherwise be if we just cut our current immigration policy” (Marketplace). While 2 percent seems insignificant, our current GDP is $18.57 trillion. We would be losing approximately $371 billion. To put this in perspective, Mars One reports the cost to bring four people to Mars is around $6 billion.

The Washington Post reports that  President Trump himself says that “the president has the right to keep people out if he feels it’s not in the best interest of our country.”. But the question is still there—why does our president feel that limiting legal immigration would benefit this country?

People like Elon Musk, a South African born immigrant and cofounder of PayPal, Sergey Brin, a Russian born immigrant and cofounder of Google, Peggy and Andrew Cherg, the Burmese and Chinese born immigrants who founded Panda Express, all came to the United States and built greatness, yet our president still believes that the less immigrants the better.

The first step in the plan set by the Trump administration is to make it harder to obtain a green card or temporary visa if those people have used “public benefits, including food stamps, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program or public assistance for housing or home heating” (Bloomberg). This is still true for those who have children with United States citizenship.

The administration’s plan to do this is not only unhelpful, but also unjust. The people affected should be treated with respect just like everyone else, and deserve a chance to obtain legal citizenship.