PTI, Washington :
US President Donald Trump has said that he wants people with merit, who can help, to enter the country and not sneak inside the border illegally.
“I’m very tough at the borders. We’ve been very tough at the borders. People have to come into our country legally, not illegally. Legally. And I want them to come in on merit,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House on Saturday.
Responding to a series of question on illegal immigration, the president reiterated that he wants people based on merit, a move that can help technology professionals from countries such as India.
“What I want is merit. I want a lot of people to come in. We have great car companies entering our country again. This hasn’t happened for 35 years. We have companies like Foxconn going to Wisconsin with a massive, massive plant,” he said.
“We need people coming in, but we want them to come in on merit. We want people that are going to help us. It’s very important,” Mr Trump said.
Observing that immigration is not tricky to him, he insisted that the administration and the Congress have to do the right thing whether there’s an election or not.
He opposed the chain migration policy and said, “If that’s a bad policy, then guess what, a lot of bad things are going to happen. But a lot of people agree with me. I would say a vast majority of our country agrees. They don’t want criminals coming into our country. They don’t want people that they don’t want in the country that aren’t going to help us as a country. They don’t want these people coming in. So we have a very strong policy.”
“The one thing that really has changed over the last couple of years since I’ve been President-our country is doing so well, even with real interest-not with false interest rates. Zero interest. Anybody can do well with zero interest. We’re the hottest country in the world, economically, by far. You take a look at us compared to China, compared to everybody else, we’re the hottest country in the world. A lot of people are trying to come in. Our border security, our ICE, our law enforcement is doing an incredible job,” he said
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that separating migrant families at the border could deter illegal immigration and that he was considering several options to tighten border security.
In June, Trump abandoned his policy of separating immigrant children from their parents on the U.S.-Mexico border after images of youngsters in cages sparked outrage at home and abroad.
But some Trump administration officials have said the policy, under which some 2,600 children were separated from their parents, was needed to secure the border and deter illegal immigration.
Trump seemed to support that argument on Saturday.
“If they feel there will be separation, they don’t come,” he said of migrants during comments to reporters at the White House.
Trump also claimed, without providing evidence, that immigrants were “grabbing children and they’re using children to come in to our country in many cases.”
He stopped short, however, of committing to a new round of family separations.
“We’re looking at a lot of different things having to do with illegal immigration,” he said, again calling on Congress to pass immigration legislation. “We’re going to do whatever we can do to get it slowed down.”
A new policy could establish illegal immigration as a major theme in mid-term congressional elections on Nov. 6, when Democrats are seen as having a good chance of regaining control of the House of Representatives.
Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on Saturday there was a crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border with rising numbers of adults entering the country illegally with children.
“DHS will continue to enforce the law humanely, and will continue to examine a range of options to secure our nation’s borders,” she said.
Following reports that Trump might again authorize family separations, Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein and Representative Jerrold Nadler on Friday called on the administration to “provide a full accounting of their previous failed efforts.”
A government audit released earlier this month said the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration crackdown at the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this year was plagued by a lack of preparation, resource shortfalls and communication failures.
