CNN: President Trump supports skills-based immigration system
President Donald Trump has thrown his support behind legislation that looks to curb the level of legal immigration into the United States by proposing a skills-based system.
Top White House aides have been working with Republican Sens. David Perdue and Tom Cotton on a bill that — if passed — would dramatically remake the current immigration system, which allows a number of ways to bring family members to the US along with job-based visas.
Trump cast the proposal as a way to protect American workers by reducing unskilled immigration and creating a merit-based system that grades possible immigrants based on their ability to work in the United States.
“It has not been fair to our people, to our citizens, to our workers,” Trump said of the current immigration system, specifically citing low-income and minority workers. The bill, Trump said, “would represent the most significant reform to our immigration system in half a century.”
The effort is expected to be met with skepticism from both Democrats and Republicans. But Trump’s support could help the measure gain traction.
