Donald Trump bats for merit-based immigration, says he wants people to come into US, but legally
Washington DC: President Donald Trump Wednesday made yet another strong pitch for merit-based immigration in his annual State of the Union address, saying legal immigrants enrich the US in countless ways, raising hopes of hundreds of thousands of Indian IT professionals who are the worst sufferers of the current per country quota system.
Indian-Americans, most of whom are highly skilled and came to the US mainly on H-1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of green cards or permanent legal residency.
In his second State of the Union (SOTU) address, President Trump said: "We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens".
According to experts, the decades-old diversity lottery visa system gave green cards to people from countries from where people would normally not qualify to come to the US through a merit-based system.
Trump has also called for ending the chain migration, the fastest and easiest way to gain legal entry into America, through sponsorship by a family member who is already a legal resident or citizen of the US.
The current wait period for Indian skilled immigrants for green card can be as long as 70 years, according to official reports. Having a Green Card allows a person to live and work permanently in the US.
The SOTU address is a traditional annual speech of the US president to a joint session of Congress where he gives an account of the situation in the country.
The lawless state of the southern Mexico border is a threat to the safety, security and financial well-being of all Americans, Trump said.
"This (moral duty) includes our obligation to the millions of immigrants living here today, who followed the rules and respected our laws. Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways.
"I want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally," Trump, maintaining his hard-line immigration policies, said.
He said his administration has sent to Congress a commonsense proposal to end the crisis on the southern border.
"It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes
that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.
"In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall -- but the proper wall never got built. I'll get it built," Trump vowed.This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier -- not just a simple concrete wall, he said.
"It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need, and as these agents will tell you, where walls go up, illegal crossings go way down.
"Simply put, walls work and walls save lives. So let's work together, compromise, and reach a deal that will truly make America safe," said the US President.
Asking the Congress to defend the very dangerous southern border, Trump said no issue better illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class than illegal immigration.
He said that wealthy politicians and donors push for open borders while living their lives behind walls and gates and guards. Meanwhile, working class Americans are left to pay the price for mass illegal migration — reduced jobs, lower wages, overburdened schools and hospitals, increased crime, and a depleted social safety net,
he said.
"Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate —it is cruel. One in three women is sexually assaulted on the long journey north. Smugglers use migrant children as human pawns to exploit our laws and gain access to our country," he said. Urging Republicans and Democrats to join forces again to confront an urgent national crisis, Trump said the US Congress has 10 days left to pass a bill that will fund the government, protect homeland and secure the southern
border.