Trump working on ‘merit-based’ immigration plan

WASHINGTON: The White House on Friday said President Donald Trump was working on an executive order to establish a meritbased immigration system and offer a path to citizenship to undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, without offering them amnesty.

The President has been pushing for a merit-based immigration system which offers US citizenship on the basis of the applicants’ qualifications and skills, instead of familial ties, which currently account for roughly half of the one million Green Cards given annually.

“As the president announced today, he is working on an executive order to establish a meritbased immigration system to further protect US workers,” the White House said in a statement, without giving a timeline.

The statement came shortly after Trump said in an interview to a Spanish TV channel that his executive order will also include a “road to citizenship” for recipients of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme — which provides for work permits and other protections for people brought to the US as children by undocumented parents. “I’m going to do a big executive order . ... And I’m going to make DACA a part of it... We’re going to have a road to citizenship,” he said. There are an estimated 644,000 undocumented immigrants in this category, including at least 2,500 from India. Trump, who is seeking re-election in November, has long sought to overhaul the US immigration system.