President Donald Trump has vowed to secure US’ international borders and prevent people from illegally entering America, and said that he wants only those based on merit to come inside the country, amid a major immigration row.
Trump, who earlier this week bowed to public pressure and reversed the controversial migrant family separations policy, made the remarks while hosting family members of those killed by undocumented immigrants at an event at the White House on Friday.
He emphasised that his Government’s first duty and highest loyalty was towards the citizens of the United States, towards ensuring safety in the country and along the borders.
“We want people in our country based on merit, not based on a draw where other countries put their absolute worst in a bin and they start drawing people,” he said told the victim families, also known as ‘angel families’.
“You think they’re going to put their good onesIJ They don’t put their good ones, they put their bad ones. And then when they commit crimes, we’re so surprised. We’ll not rest until our border is secure, our citizens are safe and we finally end the immigration crisis once and for all,” he said.
Trump said the US wants people to come in, but in the proper way. “So thank you all for being here, these are incredible families, incredible people. Your loved ones have not died in vain,” he told the angel families. He alleged that it is the stories of these families that the Opposition Democrats and people that are “weak on immigration” don’t want to discuss. “No major (news) network sent cameras to their homes, or displayed the images of their incredible loved ones across the nightly news. They don’t do that. They don’t talk about the death and destruction caused by people that shouldn’t be here, people that will continuously get into trouble and do bad things,” Trump said.