President Donald Trump has delivered to the US Congress a hardline immigration reform plan, asking lawmakers to pass a comprehensive legislation to fund his pet wall project, speed up deportations of illegal immigrants, stop grants to ‘sanctuary cities’, end asylum loopholes, introduce merit-based immigration and curb family-sponsored green cards.
In his memorandum, Trump has made Congressional action on these reforms conditional for his acceptance of any deal to provide legal status for 8,00,000-odd young undocumented immigrants (including some 7,500 Indians), whose fate hangs in the balance ever since he announced his intent to end the amnesty granted by his predecessor Barack Obama and gave Congress six months’ time to come up with a legislative fix.
The Trump plan does not make any specific reference to H-1B visas whose main beneficiaries have been Indian software professionals over the past two decades, but its strong push for merit-based immigration is expected to benefit Indians, given their levels of education and skills. Trump has mooted “a new, points-based system of awarding Green Cards (lawful permanent residents) based on factors that allow individuals to successfully assimilate and support themselves financially”.
But at the same time, his proposal to end extended family-based chain migration could affect large segments of the Indian-American population that wants to sponsor their family members, particularly aged parents, for permanent residence. The Trump plan talks of ending extended-family chain migration by limiting family-based green cards to spouses and minor children, as opposed to brothers, sisters and parents.
Democratic leaders, who have been eyeing a deal for “Dreamers” after a meeting with Trump last month, criticised his insistence on action on his hardline proposals as a pre-condition for accommodating those impacted by his decision to end the amnesty under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals plan.
“The administration can’t be serious about compromise or helping Dreamers if they begin with a list that is anathema to the Dreamers, to the immigrant community and to the vast majority of Americans,” Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said in a joint statement, adding: “If the President was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good-faith effort to do so.”
“We told the president at our meeting that we were open to reasonable border security measures alongside the DREAM Act, but this list goes so far beyond what is reasonable. This proposal fails to represent any attempt at compromise,” they said, noting: “The list includes the wall, which was explicitly ruled out of the negotiations. If the president was serious about protecting the Dreamers, his staff has not made a good faith effort to do so.”
While the bulk of Dreamers are from Mexico, the number of Indians in this category is estimated around 7,500 persons. They all could be faced with deportation in the absence of a deal hammered out by Congress by early March 2018, when the six-month deadline set by Trump expires.
The Trump plan advances the agenda on which he fought the election, especially building a wall along the US-Mexico border by demanding that the Congress ensure funding of the wall, although Trump all through his campaign maintained that he will see to it that “Mexico pays for the wall” – something contemptuously dismissed by the Mexican leaders at every opportunity.
Defending his immigration reform plan as one vital to protect US national interest, Trump in his letter to House and Senate leaders said: “Without these reforms, illegal immigration and chain migration, which severely and unfairly burden American workers and taxpayers, will continue without end. Immigration reform must create more jobs, higher wages and greater security for American – now and for future generations.”
“The current immigration system prioritizes extended family-based chain migration over skills-based immigration and does not serve the national interest. Decades of low-skilled immigration has suppressed wages, fueled unemployment and strained federal resources,” said a fact sheet on Trump’s reform proposals, drawn up after a review by the relevant executive departments and agencies.
Trump’s plan also proposes to beef up enforcement by hiring an additional 10,000 Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers and 1,000 attorneys, 370 immigration judges and 300 federal prosecutors.