President Donald Trump seems to be ready to offer a path to citizenship for the nearly two million undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
On Thursday, White House advisor Stephen Miller announced during a conference call that the Trump administration would be open to providing a pathway to citizenship to 1.8 million undocumented immigrants as long as in return drastic changes are made to current migration laws.
Under Trump’s proposed plan, the 800,000 undocumented immigrants under the DACA program would be granted citizenship after 10 to 12 years. DACA, the Obama-era program which gives temporary protection from deportation, has been a focal point in immigration reform and one of the reasons behind the recent government shutdown.
Aside from DACA recipients, Miller announced that the Trump administration was willing to offer the same protection to those who did not sign up for the program as long as they follow work and education requirements and keep a “good moral character.”
In exchange for granting such legislation, Trump is asking for additional law enforcement to speed up the deportation process. Also, Trump wants changes to “chain migration” which will only let US residents sponsor spouses and children to come to the US. Furthermore, he wants to end the visa lottery system and $25 billion for a border wall “trust fund.”
While Trump is sticking to many of his campaign promises including border wall funding, many of his base supporters are not thrilled by the proposed measures.
"I do not believe we should be granting a path to citizenship to anybody here illegally,” Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told reporters on Thursday. "Doing so is inconsistent with the promises we made to the men and women who elected us.”
Source: nydailynews.com
