This is What Chain Migration Looks Like By The Numbers, And This Is What Trump Wants To Change
During President Donald Trump’s first year in office, he talked a lot about a new immigration plan, specifically bringing an end to chain migration.
In a December New York Times interview, Trump said, “We have to get rid of chainlike immigration, we have to get rid of the chain.”
He added, “By the way, the Democrats agree with me on that. On chain migration, they pretty much agree with me.”
He reiterated that in order for there to be a deal on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, there needs to be a wall and an end to chain migration.
With immigration talks underway after the government shutdown, the end to chain migration is in sight for the president.
Chain migration is “the process by which foreign nationals permanently resettle within the U.S. and subsequently bring over their foreign relatives, who then have the opportunity to bring over their foreign relatives, and so on, until entire extended families are resettled within the country.”
The White House recently released an image showing chain migration by the numbers to put “the challenge that Chain Migration poses to those in charge of our nation’s checks and screening process” into context.
“The large influx of predominantly low-skilled migrants has had substantial fiscal and national security consequences,” according to the White House.
In a December article, the White House said that chain migration “de-skills the labor force, puts downward pressure on wages, and increases the deficit.”
Sixty-five percent of U.S. green cards are issued on the basis of family ties, according to the Department of Homeland Security Yearbook Statistics cited by the White House.
The White House announced Thursday that an outline for a “bipartisan” immigration bill will be released next Monday, according to Vox.
In their statement, the White House said the outline “represents a compromise that members of both parties can support” and “will fulfill four agree-upon pillars: securing the border and closing legal loopholes, ending extended-family chain migration, cancelling the visa lottery, and provide a permanent solution on DACA.”
“Over a period of 10 to 12 years if someone does a great job, they’ve worked hard, it gives incentive to do a great job,” Trump told reporters when asked about citizenship for DACA recipients, according to ABC News. “… I think it’s a nice thing to have the incentive of after a period of years being able to be a citizen.”
Sen. John Kennedy said that eventually Republicans will need some guidance from the president on what he wants in the immigration plan.
“The president has given us his general outline of what he’s interested in but you can’t do a bill based on a general outline and at some point we’re going to need more specificity from him,” he said. “And I”m not complaining, I’m just saying at some point we’re going to need to know exactly what the White House is thinking because who wants to pass a bill only to have it vetoed.”
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