Written by: Kriti Anand
U. S. President Donald Trump is set to announce a new immigration plan that will be based on merit rather than family ties. The immigration plan does not address illegal immigration, but rather focuses on changing the composition of the immigration population. The existing system gives preference to immigrant’s family ties. Trump’s policy would give preference to foreigners’ merits instead of that. The plan has been composed by Trump’s son-in-law Jarred Kushner. It focuses on strengthening border security and revamping the system of legal permanent residency so that people with merit, higher degrees and professional qualifications could get an easy access to the immigration system.
The details of the plan have been revealed, where the changes made in the existing immigration policy is as follows:
Employment/skill-based immigration will change from 12% to 57%.
Family-based will reduce from 66% to 33%.
Humanitarian/other immigration will be made 10%.
The visa lottery program will end.
Trump has plans to introduce a ‘Build America Visa’, which will recognize:
● Extraordinary talent
● People with professional and specialized vocations
● Exceptional students
The immigration policy assigns points to candidates on the basis of factors such as age, education, proficiency in English language, and offers of employment at a certain wage threshold. According to a special clause in the Bill, points can also be taken away if the applicant tries to bring his or her spouse. If the applicant’s spouse has lesser competency than them, points would be negatively impacted by bringing the spouse. If the points of the spouse are higher, it would make no difference to the applicant’s points.
The implementation of the plan is uncertain for now, since the Congress is divided on the issue of immigration reform. Even if Republican lawmakers are convinced, Democrats are set against this legislative policy, and it would then end up as an election issue in 2020.
