Trump push for unity, but Democrats reject overture
■ Indian IT professionals suffering from country quotas see hope in State of the Union address
Washington, Feb. 6: President Donald Trump urged Americans to come together Tuesday in a State of the Union speech seeking to turn the page on two years of divisive turmoil and transform him into a bipartisan national leader.
But Opposition Democrats almost instantly rejected the overture, while Mr Trump’s steadfast insistence on building US- Mexico border walls promised new political strife in the near future.
At times joking, at times impassioned, Mr Trump told Congress and a huge television audience that “we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common
good”. On foreign policy, Mr Trump reaffirmed his determination to get US troops out of Afghanistan and Syria as quickly as possible. And he announced he would extend his trailblazing personal diplomacy with North Korea by meeting reclusive leader Kim Jong Un on February 2728 in Vietnam.
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Washington, Feb. 6: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday made yet another strong pitch for merit- based immigration in his annual State of the Union address, saying legal immigrants enrich the US in countless ways, raising hopes of hundreds of thousands of Indian IT professionals who are the worst sufferers of the current per country quota system.
Indian- Americans, most of whom are highly skilled and came to the US mainly on H- 1B work visas, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system which imposes a seven per cent per country quota on allotment of green cards or permanent legal residency.
In his second State of the Union ( SOTU) address, President Trump said: “We have a moral duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs of our citizens”.
According to experts, the decades- old diversity lottery visa system gave green cards to people from countries from where people would normally not qualify to come to the US through a merit- based system. Trump has also called for ending the chain migration, the fastest and easiest way to gain legal entry into America, through sponsorship by a family member who is already a legal resident or citizen of the US.
The current wait period for Indian skilled immigrants for green card can be as long as 70 years, according to official
■ INDO- AMERICANS, are the worst sufferers of the current immigration system
■ 7% PER country quota limit on green cards is the culprit here
reports. Having a Green Card allows a person to live and work permanently in the US. The SOTU address is a traditional annual speech of the US president to a joint session of Congress where he gives an account of the situation in the country.
The lawless state of the southern Mexico border is a threat to the safety, security and financial wellbeing of all Americans, Trump said.
“This ( moral duty) includes our obligation to the millions of immigrants
living here today, who followed the rules and respected our laws. Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways.
“I want people to come into our country, but they have to come in legally,” Trump, maintaining his hard- line immigration policies, said. He said his administration has sent to Congress a commonsense proposal to end the crisis on the southern border.
“It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry. “In the past, most of the people in this room voted for a wall -- but the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built,” Trump vowed.