A few key highlights from President Trump’s May 16, 2019 address on immigration reform:
“We’re here on this very beautiful spring day in the Rose Garden to unveil our plan to create a fair, modern, and lawful system of immigration for the United States. …
Our plan achieves two critical goals. First, it stops illegal immigration and fully secures the border. And, second, it establishes a new legal immigration system that protects American wages, promotes American values, and attracts the best and brightest from all around the world.
Everyone agrees that the physical infrastructure on the border and the ports of entry is gravely underfunded and woefully inadequate. … Investment in technology will ensure we can scan 100 percent of everything coming through, curbing the flow of drugs and contraband, while speeding up legal trade and commerce.
To make certain that we are constantly making the upgrades we need, our proposal creates a permanent and self-sustaining border security trust fund. This will be financed by the fees and revenues generated at the border crossings itself.
As we close the gaps in our physical framework, we must also close the gaps in our legal framework. …Our plan includes a sweeping modernization of our dysfunctional legal immigration process. It is totally dysfunctional. The system will finally be fair, transparent, and promote equality and opportunity for all.
Under the senseless rules of the current system, we’re not able to give preference to a doctor, a researcher, a student who graduated number one in his class from the finest colleges in the world — anybody. … We discriminate against genius. We discriminate against brilliance.
Only 12 percent of legal immigrants are selected based on skill or based on merit.
… The biggest change we make is to increase the proportion of highly skilled immigration from 12 percent to 57 percent, and we’d like to even see if we can go higher.
At the same time, we prioritize the immediate family of new Americans — spouses and children. … They go right to the front of the line. Right to the front of the line, where they should be.
The White House plan makes no change to the number of green cards allocated each year. But instead of admitting people through random chance, we will establish simple, universal criteria for admission to the United States. 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.
We will replace the existing green card categories with a new visa, the Build America visa — which is what we all want to hear. … Like Canada and so many other modern countries, we create an easy-to-navigate points-based selection system. Priority will also be given to higher-wage workers, ensuring we never undercut American labor.
Together, we will create an immigration system to make America safer, and stronger, and greater than ever before.”
