The distraction of the day is the President's vulgar characterization of Haiti and Africa as "s***holes" (yes, I know the word but hope I have communications standards higher than Mr. Trump's). Of course, his expressed preference for immigrants from Norway closed the loop in exposing his underlying bias.

A comment to congressmen in the privacy of his office is one thing. But the economic impact of his preferred legislative policy on immigration, the so-called "RAISE Act" is another and more serious matter. It was hardly coincidental that one of the sponsors of that bill, Sen Tom Cotton, was among the surprise attendees when Sen. Lyndsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin arrived to present a bi-partisan approach to immigration reform.

It is no accident, and no surprise either, that U.S. business is overwhelmingly opposed to the RAISE Act. At a time of increasing labor shortages in the US, across a broad span of occupations, the RAISE Act would not only cut in half the volume of LEGAL IMMIGRATION, but would drastically restrict country-of-origin patterns to English-speaking nations and tilt preferences to the highly-educated (so-called merit-based tests). Such provisions fly in the face of the diversity of occupational needs of 21st century America, not to mention the stifling of entrepreneursship typical of immigrants whose career paths begin with lower-level jobs but grow in the first generation and bear fruit in upwardly mobile 2nd and 3rd generations.

These issues are discussed in great detail in the article from Commercial Property Executive (September 2017) posted on this website under "Industry Publications."