America’s most notable skeptic of immigration is having a change of heart, writes Becoming American Initiative Director Linda Chavez.
After spending much time and energy as a candidate and president descrying immigration, Donald Trump now wants Americans to believe immigrants are good for our country. On Thursday, the president touted a new immigration plan put together by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, a man with little experience on the issue, and his adviser Stephen Miller, who has plenty of experience, albeit of a particularly nasty, xenophobic variety. The plan, which has yet to be formalized into proposed legislation, would dramatically change the way immigrants could gain entry to the United States, moving away from a policy that awarded preference to newcomers who already had family ties with individuals living here to one that would rely on a narrowly defined merit system. The effect would be to keep out most Latino and many Asian immigrants, especially those who lack college or advanced degrees. It would also simply ignore the fate of the million or so young people brought to the country illegally as children, the DACA recipients, as well as the larger population of undocumented immigrants, two-thirds of whom have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade.
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