Trump unveils immigration and border security bill in Cabinet meeting
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[July 17, 2019]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.
President Donald Trump presented a bill to his Cabinet on Tuesday aimed
at boosting border security and overhauling the current immigration
system to make it more merit-based, a senior administration official
said.
With U.S. lawmakers' August recess looming, the official did not give a
timetable for introducing the bill to Congress, but described it as
laying out the president's vision to rally Republicans around a detailed
proposal.
The president will meet with Republican congressional leaders Mitch
McConnell and Kevin McCarthy later on Tuesday to map out a way forward,
the official added, requesting anonymity.
"The goal of this has been to unify the Republicans as much as possible
around a plan," he said, noting that divisions with the GOP over policy
issues had hindered immigration reform bids in the past.
"We'll see what leader McConnell and McCarthy want to do, if they want
to put it for a vote. But at least the Democrats will know what the
Republican unified position is," the official said.
The bill has 10 Republican Senate co-sponsors, he said.
While the White House has discussed it with some Democrats, the person
added, it was unclear if it would win the support of members of the
Democratic Party, which controls the House of Representatives.
Trump pledged to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico in his
2016 run for office, and has since fought with Congress and in the
courts for funding to pay for the barrier.
On Monday, he touted weekend raids aimed at immigrants who had been
ordered deported, as his administration seeks to deter a surge in
Central American families seeking asylum in the United States after
fleeing poverty and gang violence in their home countries.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a cabinet meeting at the White
House in Washington, U.S., July 16, 2019. REUTERS/Leah Millis
The administration also said it would take steps to make it more
difficult for immigrants arriving at the southern border to seek
asylum in the United States, putting the onus on them to first ask
for shelter in other countries.
In May, White House officials laid out principles for the plan which
they have been working on over the past seven months.
The plan does not deal with the "Dreamer" children of immigrants in
the country illegally or immigrants under Temporary Protected
Status, both priorities of Democratic lawmakers.
It does include a modified version of the so-called E-Verify
program, which relies on a database that allows employers to
electronically check the immigration status of potential employees.
A merit-based system could upend the decades-old U.S. practice of
giving priority to family-based immigration. About two-thirds of all
people granted green cards for U.S. residency each year have family
ties to people in the United States.
(Reporting by Alexandra Alper and Jeff Mason; Editing by Tom Brown)
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