UNITED STATES—President Donald Trump announced a new immigration plan from the Rose Garden on May 16. Trump laid out the two-part plan in detail on the White House website, where the plan recognizes the need for full border security. The new plan has a permanent self-sustaining border security fund within it. The revenue generated at the ports of entry will sustain the fund and ensure that law enforcement officers never have to wait on Congress to release the funds needed for them to do their jobs.
The President addressed the modernization process to protect American workers. The new plan allows for immigration into the U.S. on the basis of merit working through a point-based system. Currently, the system is what the President called, “a random visa lottery,” a system that works on chance rather than economic needs. The point-system ranges from 12-57 percent based on the immigrants merit or skill.
The layers of protection will be implemented to help new citizens become productive members of society. Those protections are for American jobs, wages, recruitment requirements, displacement prohibitions, and wage floors.
President Trump designed the plan to attract immigrants who are willing and ready to integrate into American society by giving priority to young applicants who are able to build long-term ties to the country. There will be an application process that will validate that new applicants coming into the country will bestow the tools they need to succeed. Green card applicants will pass a U.S. civics exam and demonstrate proficiency in the English language.
Immediate family, spouses, and children of U.S. citizens and permanent residence will take priority.
President Trump stated that “No matter where in the world you’re born, no matter who your relatives are, if you want to become an American citizen, it will be clear exactly what standard we ask you to achieve. It will be made crystal clear.
This will increase the diversity of immigration flows into our country. We will replace the existing green card categories with a new visa, the Build America visa — which is what we all want to hear.”
“Our proposal is pro-American, pro-immigrant, and pro-worker. It’s just common sense,” said President Trump. He explained that America has not reformed it’s legal admission system in more than 50 years.
