WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - As part of modernizing the US immigration system, Senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner has laid out the Trump administration's new policy that promotes merit-based legal immigration.
As per a Bill that was presented to the Cabinet meeting, the United States will take in 57 percent of applicants through merit-based legal immigration.
This is nearly five times more than the current 12 per cent of people who become legal immigrants through merit-based system.
'Twelve percent of the people who are coming in are filling economic needs that we have. Compare that to some of our peer countries like Canada; they're at 53 percent. New Zealand at 59 percent. Australia, 63 percent. And Japan at 52 percent,' Kushner said while leading a presentation of the proposed Bill in the White House.
He said that a new immigration bill will create a modern, merit-based immigration system that allows the best and the brightest from throughout the world to compete based on objective criteria to become US citizens. This bill also creates the gold standard for border security, according to Kushner.
He said the Trump administration wants to make sure that it is bringing people in who are filling the labor gaps in critical industries.
The new policy aims to make sure that all the ports of entry are fully modernized, and 100 percent of the people and goods in the vehicles that cross the border are fully scanned.
In Kushner's opinion, the bill will lead to a fully secure border, solve the humanitarian crisis, and protect American wages.
He said the US government adopted the practice that Australia does with diversity pooling to make sure that a good cross-section of people are coming from a wide range of countries.
The change in immigration policy is estimated to create more than $500 billion in tax revenues over 10 years.
Kushner said he is meeting with the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate to discuss the new proposals.
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