Trump promises merit-based immigration action ‘pretty soon’

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Strong on borders, it will also take care of 700,000 dreamers.

A day after rescinding his order barring foreign students taking online-only classes under snowballing pressure from universities, Silicon Valley and 20 states, President Donald Trump has again promised merit-based immigration action ‘pretty soon.’

A ‘great’ and ‘very powerful immigration act’ that America has been waiting for 25-30 years will be strong on the border, but would let people come in legally and also take care of the Dreamers, he said.

His “very, very big merit-based immigration action” will be taken on the basis of the recent Supreme Court decision on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), Trump said at a Rose Garden, White House press conference Tuesday.

The top Court in a recent 5-4 decision rebuffed on technical grounds,Trump’s attempts to undo the Obama era DACA  program that protects dreamers who came to the US without documents as children from deportation. It also allows some 700,000 dreamers, including about 4,500 South Asians to work with two-year renewable permits.

But the nine judge bench unanimously acknowledged that Trump has the legal authority to end DACA

“Pretty soon I’m going to be signing a new immigration action — very, very big merit-based immigration action that, based on the DACA decision, I’ll be able to do,” he said.

“We’ll be signing a very powerful immigration act.  It’ll be great.  It’ll be merit-based,” Trump said.  “The country has tried to get it for 25 or 30 years.

“It’ll be strong on the border, but  you’ll be able to come in legally,” he said. “And very importantly, we’ll be taking care of people from DACA in a very Republican way.

“I’ve spoken to many Republicans, and some would like to leave it out, but, really, they understand that it’s the right thing to do,” Trump said.

“So we’re going to be taking care of DACA.  We will be doing for DACA what the Democrats had a chance to do and they never did it.”

“We’re going to work on DACA because we want to make people happy,” the President said. “And I’ll tell you, even conservative Republicans want to see something happen with DACA.”

Suggesting that the Democrats “used it as politics,” Trump said. “I’m using it to get something done.”

The President, however, did not say whether his reforms could include a path to citizenship for the Dreamers as a previous White House statement had indicated.

READ MORE:

Trump administration backtracks on new foreign students directive (July 14, 2020)

Facebook, Google, Microsoft join battle against Trump foreign student ban (July 14, 2020)

Johns Hopkins joins battle against Trump’s ‘cruel attack’ on foreign students (July 13, 2020)

Academics, immigrant bodies, lawmakers oppose international student ban (July 10, 2020)

Harvard, MIT sue US authorities for barring online-only foreign students (July 8, 2020)

Foreign students face deportation if US schools go online (July 7, 2020)

Joe Biden vows to lift Trump’s H-1B ban if elected (July 1, 2020)

US says foreign students still welcome despite new rule (July 8, 2020)

Indian students asked to stay in touch with schools regarding OPT (June 18, 2020)

Canada leads the way in attracting and assimilating international students (May 13, 2020)