Features:
- Under the proposed merit-based immigration system, permanent legal residency would be given based on points for their age, knowledge, job opportunities and civic sense.
- The proposals significantly increase the quota for skilled workers from the existing nearly 12% to 57%.
- Besides, immigrants will be required to learn English and pass a civics exam prior to admission.
- He proposed moving away from the current system that favours applicants with family ties to the US. He said border security would be beefed up and a tougher line taken on asylum seekers.
- Under this, foreigners, including hundreds and thousands of Indian professionals and skilled workers, waiting to get Green Cards or permanent legal residency stand to benefit.
Way ahead: View of Critiques and Experts
- The proposals would have to be approved by Congress where Democrats currently control the lower house.
- Senior Democrats dismissed his ideas as "dead-on-arrival". They say the proposed new system fails to offer a route to citizenship for so-called "Dreamers" - hundreds of thousands of people brought to the US as children but who still have no legal right to remain.
- Many business groups are unlikely to be enthusiastic about the proposals because they do not help farmers and other seasonal employers recruit more temporary workers.
- The White House's plans are also unlikely to satisfy many Right-wing politicians who want an overall drop in immigration numbers.
Background: Trump’s view on Immigration
- President Trump has always taken a hard line on immigration and during his election campaign made the building of a wall along the Mexican border a key pledge.
- Earlier this year he declared a national emergency on the US southern border, claiming he needed special powers to build the wall to halt all illegal migration.
