US President Donald Trump has unveiled a new immigration reform plan
“Our plan includes a radical modernization of the poorly functioning legal immigration process. It (the process) is completely inefficient,” the president said during his speech. “If for any reason, possibly political, we cannot get the Democrats to approve this plan, based on the qualifications (of potential immigrants) and a high level of security, we will approve it immediately after the election – when we take back the House of Representatives, keep the Senate, and, of course, hold the presidency,” Trump said, speaking before Republican lawmakers and cabinet members in the White House Rose Garden.
According to Voice of America, today about two-thirds of the 1.1 million foreigners who receive permanent residency in the US each year are relatives of American citizens. Trump proposes keeping that number unchanged, increasing quotas among green card recipients in favor of participants in a system created “based on merit assessment” of potential immigrants. According to the president, as a result of the reform, 57% of all permanent residency permits will be issued based on professional qualifications and education level.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi commented on the White House immigration plan ahead of Trump’s speech, calling the principle of assessing potential immigrants “by merit” humiliating. “They say the principle of issuing residency permits to relatives is legally unsound? They want to say that most people who have ever come to the US in the history of our country have no merit because they didn’t have an engineering degree?” Pelosi said in a conversation with journalists.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized the White House for not coordinating the reform proposal with Democrats. Schumer called Trump’s plan “not serious.”
Trump is seeking to convince the public and lawmakers of the need for a radical reform of the American immigration system. The reform’s developers focused primarily on ensuring border security and also rethought the approach to issuing so-called green cards (permanent US residency).
The authors of the plan, developed under the leadership of Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, propose changing the issuance rules in favor of educated and highly qualified specialists and moving away from the principle of issuing green cards to relatives of immigrants who have obtained US citizenship.
Thus, the president made an official announcement of the new immigration reform plan. For the plan to come to fruition, the White House will need to defend it in Congress. It is unlikely that the administration will be able to reach an agreement with Democrats on such a contentious issue on the eve of the presidential election, writes the Associated Press.
According to White House officials, Trump’s plan could unite the Republican Party ahead of the election. The text proposed by the White House does not mention the issue of illegal immigrants already living in the US. This, in particular, concerns the so-called “Dreamers” – children of illegal migrants brought into the country by their parents before reaching adulthood. However, many observers believe the White House is ready to include measures to protect “Dreamers” in the reform plan if needed to reach an agreement with Democrats.
The White House says that at this stage, the fate of “Dreamers” is not being discussed, but acknowledges that the presented plan is only the first step toward reforming the immigration system. As White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told journalists, the administration decided not to address this issue in its plan because it is highly controversial and has previously hindered the adoption of similar proposals on immigration.
The new immigration plan was developed
under the leadership of Jared Kushner,
President Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser
During a press briefing, administration officials said Trump’s plan involves introducing a points-based immigration system, an idea borrowed from Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. The number of green cards issued by US authorities to new immigrants will remain the same, but quotas will be significantly increased for highly qualified professionals, students with outstanding achievements, and individuals with professional education. The age of applicants, English language proficiency, and whether they have job offers in the US will also be taken into account.
Far fewer green cards will be issued to close relatives of US citizens. Additionally, the green card lottery, which currently allows many foreigners to obtain permanent residency regardless of their professional qualifications, education, and language skills, will be eliminated. “Language proficiency is a strong indicator of long-term economic success, not only for the immigrants themselves but also for their children,” an administration official emphasized.
According to Reuters, today only 12% of all US green cards are issued based on the professional qualifications and education of recipients. Meanwhile, Canadian authorities use this principle for 63% of permanent residency permits. In Australia, this figure is even higher – 68%. White House officials told journalists about this.
Under the administration’s plan, visas based on professional skills or job offers in the US will account for 57%, while visas for relatives will account for 33% (currently this figure is 66%). The number of visas issued for humanitarian reasons will decrease from 22% to 10%.
The administration also plans to establish a special fund for border security, with money going toward modernizing checkpoints and other measures. Additionally, the White House wants to reconsider the approach to granting asylum in the United States: it plans to reduce the number of applications accepted and simplify the deportation process for people who do not meet refugee criteria. According to White House officials, further details of the plan will be announced in the coming weeks.
Prominent Republican Senator Lindsey Graham presented his own proposal to resolve the crisis caused by the influx of asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border. Graham said his proposal would make the United States a "less attractive country" for refugees from Central American countries. Under this plan, migrants seeking asylum in the United States would have to apply at special centers in Mexico and several Central American countries.
Graham proposes increasing the detention period for families of illegal migrants with children from 20 to 100 days, hiring 500 immigration judges to expedite case processing, and allowing the deportation of minor illegal immigrants from Central America to their home countries. Currently, such a rule applies only to minor illegal immigrants from neighboring countries—Mexico and Canada.
In an interview with journalists, Graham said he urged Trump to strike a deal with Democrats and noted that the president, in his view, was "receptive" to the idea. According to the senator, the immigration reform plan could help unite Republicans.