Immigration to be focus of Trump’s State of the Union Address

World
Europe

US President Donald Trump is pushing for what the White House calls a comprehensive plan to fix immigration in the US, which would see funding for his border wall and a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.

Trump is due to outline his administration’s plans in Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, which is expected to go heavy on immigration. So far, the plan has elicited a lukewarm reception from both some Republicans and some Democrats.

Under Trump’s proposals, 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the US when they were children – sometimes called “Dreamers” – would be given a chance of citizenship. The plan would see these undocumented immigrants on a “10-12 path to citizenship,” the White House said in a statement on Thursday.

People protest for immigration reform for DACA recipients and a new Dream Act, in Los Angeles, California, US, on Jan. 22, 2018. /Reuters Photo

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was enacted by former President Barack Obama to help those who were brought to the US as children. Trump terminated the program in 2017, but said he wanted to see the Congress come up with a way to take care of those under the plan. DACA currently covers around 700,000 young undocumented immigrants.

Last week, the White House said it would broaden the program to include those who were eligible but never signed up, bringing the total to an estimated 1.8 million people. The White House called this a “dramatic concession.”

When Trump first announced the new plan on Thursday, it seemed the White House was hoping for a bipartisan agreement. This weekend, however, he lashed out at Democrats.

Screenshot of US President Donald Trump's post on Twitter./@realDonaldTrump

“I have offered DACA a wonderful deal, including a doubling in the number of recipients and a twelve year pathway to citizenship, for two reasons: first, because the Republicans want to fix a long time terrible problem; second, to show that Democrats do not want to solve DACA, only use it!” he tweeted.

The administration wants 25 billion US dollars for border security as part of the plan, and to restrict legal immigration even further.

The new plan would also see an end to the so-called "extended-family chain migration” limiting sponsorships of visas for immigrants families to spouses and minor children.