White House Announces Plan for Immigration Reform
President Trump today announced that the White House is drafting a high-level plan to reform the U.S. immigration system, featuring reduced family-based migration, restrictions on asylum, more border security measures and replacement of the employment-based green card system with a points system modeled on similar Australian and Canadian immigration programs.
Though specific details of the plan have not been disclosed, President Trump sketched out a merit-based system that would assess permanent residence applicants on the basis of criteria that include age, skills, education level, offer of employment, job creation potential and wage level. Applicants would also be required to demonstrate financial self-sufficiency, have English-language proficiency and pass a civics exam. The President did not address temporary immigration programs.
The plan described by President Trump resembles the RAISE Act, a merit-based immigration proposal first introduced in 2017 by Senators Tom Cotton (R-AK) and David Perdue (R-GA). A similar bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in April of this year.
See
https://www.npr.org/2019/05/16/723677591/trumps-new-immigration-plan-doesn-t-address-undocumented-immigrants for more information.