‘Aggressive’ line on immigration a priority for Trump, says adviser

DONALD TRUMP’S chief immigration adviser said his administration would expand its travel ban to raise the “standard” for entry if the US president is reelected.

Stephen Miller, known as the driving force for the administration’s hardline immigration policies, said the Trump administration would continue to pursue an “aggressive” crackdown on illegal immigration and increase vetting for those seeking work in the US.

In a rare interview, Mr Miller told NBC News the administration would not commit to lifting the current freeze on renewing visas, which is set to expire at the end of the year, or to issuing new green cards, which grant permanent residency. Mr Miller said a “major priority” would be “building on and expanding the framework that we’ve created with the travel ban, in terms of raising the standard for screening and vetting for admission to the United States”.

This would include appraising applicants’ “i deological sympathies or leanings” to determine whether they were vulnerable to being recruited by radicals.

Work visas offered to foreigners would also be reduced, with priority given to higher earners, allowing only those who “can contribute the most to job creation and economic opportunity”.

However, Mr Miller said the Trump administration would not reinstate its controversial “zero tolerance” policy that led to hundreds of children being separated from their families on the US

Mexico border while their cases were processed. Instead, Mr Miller said he would achieve this by amending the Flores agreement, which prohibits children being held more than 20 days in detention and led to family separations.

However, an amendment leaves open the possibility that whole families could be detained indefinitely as they await their day in immigration court.

Mr Miller also said a priority was expanding “burden-sharing” deals that block asylum-seekers’ routes to the US. “The president would like to expand that to include the rest of the world,” he added.

Mr Trump would push to “outlaw” the practice of so-called “sanctuary cities”, which refuse to hand over arrested illegal immigrants to federal agents for deportation, he said.