Trump proposed the "Dream Act", "replacement" and "chain migration"

Trump proposed the "Dream Act", "replacement" and "chain migration"...

Trump's immigration policy this year has been challenged. (Photo source: Associated Press)

[Qiaobao Comprehensive News] President Trump repealed the Obama-era DACA program in early September. At that time, he gave a six-month buffer period and asked Congress to use this "opportunity" to make a final decision on the DACA replacement program. For several months, the Democratic Party has been putting pressure on the Republican Party in negotiations on budget, tax reform and other issues, hoping to pass a permanent legal DACA program but has failed.

According to reports, Trump took to Twitter on Friday to reiterate his stance on calling for anti-chain immigration and the construction of a border wall. He said that if the Democratic Party fails to meet his demands, there will be no agreement to retain the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and he will not approve the Dream Act (Dream Act). Congressional Democrats say Trump keeps us debating the issue in an election year. But we cannot create a new immigration system because of his false urgency and repeal of DACA.

Trump: Build the border wall first and then discuss Dreamers

According to Qiaobao reporter Xu Yifan, on December 29, President Trump tweeted that the Democratic Party already knows that there will be no new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program before "building a wall" on the southern border of the United States and ending unreasonable immigration methods such as chain migration.

Trump used this to send a clear message to the Democratic Party: It is impossible to restore or establish a new DACA without conditions, which the Democratic Party has been working hard for.

Trump, who was still on vacation at Mar-a-lago in Florida, posted this tweet before setting off for a golf club. He said Democrats have been informed and fully understand that without building the much-needed wall on the southern border and ending the horrific chain migration and absurd lottery immigration system, there will be no DACA. "We must defend our country at all costs!"

When an attempted terrorist attack occurred in New York earlier this month, Trump stated that the suspect had officially entered the United States through "relative chain migration," which threatened the national security of the United States. As a result, he emphasized in his statement that Congress must end "chain migration" and take other measures to strengthen border and domestic security. Earlier, in the truck-ramming terrorist attack in New York on October 31, the suspect entered the United States through the diversified lottery immigration system known as the "Green Card Lottery." At that time, Trump also stated that he would stop lottery immigration and fight for a "merit-based" immigration system.

Immigration reform may be a key legislative project next year

According to Qiaobao reporter Xu Yifan, the so-called "specialty-based" immigration system is currently the most well-formed plan of Republican Senators Tom Cotton and David Perdue. Perdue, the "Reforming American Immigration and Strengthening Employment Act" ("RAISE") mainly includes canceling the diversity lottery green card program, reducing family-based immigration, and "scoring" green card applicants based on their skills. However, since Trump expressed support for the bill in early August this year, there has been no progress in this regard because the White House and Congress are busy with issues such as health insurance and tax reform. Now that tax reform has been passed and Obamacare has been essentially repealed, immigration reform is likely to be Trump's key legislative project in 2018.

Moreover, Trump abolished the DACA program signed by Obama in September this year; at that time, he gave a half-year buffer period and asked Congress to take advantage of this "window of opportunity" to make a final decision on the DACA replacement program. For several months, the Democratic Party has been putting pressure on the Republicans in negotiations on budget, tax reform and other issues, hoping to pass a permanent and legal DACA program, but has been unable to succeed. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus held and participated in many press conferences, sit-ins and other protests. Chinese-American Representative Zhao Meixin was arrested for an hour. In addition, more than one Republican congressman has expressed sympathy for DACA.

Today, 800,000 "Dreamers" who benefited from the program are still waiting for Congress to decide. Trump set out conditions today, requiring the Democratic Party to agree to build a wall, abolish chain immigration and the green card lottery before restoring or renewing DACA. It is expected that there will be a "buffer period" between the White House and Congress and between the two parties on these issues in the coming year to abolish DACA, which will end on March 5, 2018.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests illegal immigrants in Phoenix, Asia. (Photo source: Associated Press)

>Trump is slowly closing the door on immigration to the world

The Migration Policy Institute, an independent think tank that studies world immigration issues and U.S. immigration policy, recently released a list of the top ten immigration issues in 2017. "The Trump administration's measures to tighten legal immigration" ranked first.

Since taking office as president on January 20 this year, Trump has vigorously and resolutely implemented a series of new policies. Among them, immigration policy reform, a travel ban targeting Muslims only, and border enforcement targeting Latino immigrants are the toughest, and they have encountered the most fierce confrontation.

Despite this, Trump still has a tough stance on pursuing immigration policies and strengthening border enforcement. After making slight concessions and launching a revised immigration ban, he also listed a series of legislative priorities, including building a wall on the US-Mexico border, strengthening law enforcement and deporting illegal immigrants, stopping federal aid to sanctuary cities, establishing a new green card issuance system, restricting the issuance of green cards to spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens and permanent residents, establishing a points-based immigration system, and abolishing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

After Trump, a political novice, entered the White House, his new immigration policy met with massive opposition across the United States, but it also gained favor and support from voters who had long been resentful of the Democratic Party’s rule over the past eight years. Public opinion analysis generally believes that Trump's tough attitude is to fulfill the promises he made during the campaign, which also reflects the increasingly serious divisions in American society on major issues from another level.

The United States is a country of immigrants, and Trump’s measures against immigrants directly affect tens of millions of families. An immigration research report released by the U.S. Migration Policy Institute at the end of the year stated that the Trump administration is slowly closing the door to immigration in some parts of the world.

The Trump administration has made great efforts to implement the new immigration policy in the past year and has been unprecedentedly active in promoting the implementation of relevant agendas. However, the courts, Congress, and local governments have not cooperated to a considerable extent, resulting in the delay or shelving of these agendas. Therefore, there have been no major changes that Trump expected.

The bumpy road of the new immigration policy this year has made the American society that was already severely torn during last year's election even worse. The ups and downs of the New Immigration Deal, apart from the factors of political struggle between the Democratic and Republican camps, most importantly touch on traditional American values. In fact, in the past year, the antagonism between white people and people of color, the elite and the lower-middle class, the media and the government has continued to deepen.

California Assembly Senator Kevin de Leon spoke out in support of the DREAM Act in Los Angeles on the 20th of this month. (Photo source: Associated Press)

Many countries tightened their immigration policies in 2017. The reasons behind them are thought-provoking

Looking back at 2017, when the electoral situation in various countries changed or the economy was in a downturn, governments often resorted to immigration policies. Nowadays, restrictive immigration projects have gradually become the new norm, and an extremely complex political immigration pattern is arriving quietly. What are the reasons behind the continuous contraction of immigration policies in various countries?

First, there is the quietly growing employment protectionism. Under the shadow of the financial crisis, as the total number of job opportunities decreases, the era of "generous" green cards issued by immigration countries has come to an end. They have replaced their reliance on overseas workers with "training local talents" and reduced the level of immigrant populations.

In the United States, after Trump took office, he further reformed the immigration policy. In addition to adjusting the investment immigration policy, the H1-B visa reform will give priority to providing job opportunities to American residents on the basis of advocating "retaining the brightest and best talents." This includes canceling the H-4 work permit; he even issued an executive order of "Buy American, Hire American" to guide the visa project and "protect the interests of American workers." Due to reasons such as "the academic qualifications exceed the requirements of the position", the U.S. H-1B visa was rejected, and a large number of outstanding talents were forced to lose the opportunity to study in the United States.

In Australia, Prime Minister Turnbull said that the government's future employment policy will prioritize Australians. Some people have proposed that in order to prevent talents from being "wasted", the number of immigrants should be reduced. Some employers even use "lack of Australian experience" as a reason for refusing to hire immigrants.

In the UK, the government has increased employee salary standards and immigration skills fees, which has increased costs for companies that want to hire overseas employees. This also means that they will focus on finding matching technical talents locally.

Secondly, in recent years, there has been a rise in Western countries’ denial of globalization. The tightening of immigration policies by many countries is also a form of trade protection in the process of globalization. In the process of globalized economic development, the relatively unbalanced industrial structure has begun to show anti-globalization tendencies. They must restrict immigration by raising application standards to protect industries within their own countries.

Finally, the recurring terrorist attacks around the world have forced countries to close their doors to protect themselves rather than accept immigrants. Two terrorists who attacked New York in recent months entered the United States through a "broken" immigration system. Trump said the worst citizens of the worst countries entered the United States through the visa lottery and that diversity visas provided a channel for terrorists to enter the United States.

The frequent and unforeseen changes in U.S. immigration laws have made U.S. immigration policies increasingly ambiguous. For Chinese, it will be even more difficult to stay in the United States.

> 5 things Trump may do related to immigration in 2018

> Trump’s immigration policy in the first year was very different from that of the previous president.

In the first year of his administration, Trump cracked down on illegal immigration and also imposed many restrictions on legal immigration.

ICE arrested a large number of illegal immigrants, and the number of illegal immigrants crossing the border also decreased. In 2018, Trump may do these five things related to immigration.