Trump to propose US immigration plan favouring high-skilled people

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will outline a plan to harden border security and overhaul the legal immigration system to favour applicants who speak English, are well-educated and have job offers, senior administration officials said.

Trump’s immigration proposal, the product largely of senior advisers Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller and economic aide Kevin Hassett, is an effort to rally Republicans on an issue that has often divided them. While its chances of approval by Congress seem distant, the plan will give Republicans an outline they can say they favour as Trump and lawmakers look toward the November 2020 presidential and congressional elections, where immigration will likely be a key issue.

Trump’s plan would keep legal immigration steady at 1.1 million people a year, but family-based immigration would account for only a third of that. Instead, highskilled people with jobs would be given priority, and could bring with them their spouses and children, the officials told reporters at a White House briefing on Wednesday.

It would harden the border by building more of Trump’s coveted southern border wall and improve inspections of goods and people at ports of entry to fight drug smuggling. It would propose an increase in fees collected at the border to pay for border security infrastructure.

Trump will present an overview of the plan, with details of the “very large document” to be released in coming weeks, the official said. REUTERS