Washington: Reiterating his “America First” policy, US President DonaldTrump on Sunday pushed for a merit-based immigration system, saying he onlywants people who can help America become “strong and great again”. He alsosaid that there will be no more diversity lottery visa.
“I, as President, want people coming into our Country who are going to helpus become strong and great again, people coming in through a system basedon MERIT. No more Lotteries! #AMERICA FIRST,” Mr Trump tweeted on Sunday.
Mr Trump, who said a merit-based system will allow only people with “greattrack record” to enter the country, stressed that he wanted safety andsecurity of Americans and an end to “massive” inflow of drugs.
The US president has been calling for the merit-based immigration system,of which people from countries like India could be a major beneficiary, toreduce overall immigration to the US.
The decades-old diversity lottery visa system gave green cards to peoplefrom countries from where people would normally not qualify to come to theUS through a merit-based system.
In an another tweet, President Trump said a deal to resolve the status ofhundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the United States illegallyas children is “probably dead,” blaming it on Democrats.
“DACA is probably dead because the Democrats don’t really want it, theyjust want to talk and take desperately needed money away from ourMilitary,” Trump said, referring to the Deferred Action on ChildhoodArrivals program.
DACA, established in 2012 by Trump predecessor Barack Obama, protects fromdeportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants whose parents brought theminto the country illegally as children.
Trump said in September he was scrapping the program but delayedenforcement to give Congress six months — until March — to craft alasting solution.
Trump came back on the issue in a pair of tweets three days after ignitingoutrage by referring to African and Haitian immigrants as coming from”shithole countries.”