Report: Administration drafts executive actions to restrict immigration
Report: Administration drafts executive actions to restrict immigration
16m 30s ago
http://thehill.com/sites/default/fil...?itok=3AJRbxHl
The Trump administration is considering two executive orders to restrict immigration, taking aim at immigrant workers and those likely to depend on public assistance, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The White House would not comment for the Post's story, and it's unclear if Trump will act on the documents or how they may change.
The first draft is a plan to screen out would-be immigrants who are likely to require public assistance.
The measure also seeks to deport — when possible — immigrants already present in the U.S. who are dependent on taxpayer aid.The second draft calls for an overhaul of the system used for administering immigrant and non-immigrant visas.
The order’s aim is to tightly control who enters the country and the workforce, ultimately reducing the social-services burden on taxpayers.
“Our country’s immigration laws are designed to protect American taxpayers and promote immigrant self-sufficiency,” the first draft reads. "Yet households headed by aliens are more likely than those headed by citizens to use Federal means-tested public benefits.”
The order added the Trump administration would strive to “deny admission to any alien who is likely to become a public charge.”
The measure would also develop standards for “determining whether an alien is deportable…for having become a public charge within five years of entry.”
The Post noted the standards would apply to those who receive public assistance including food stamps, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid.
The second order, meanwhile, is tasked with “eliminating” the “jobs magnet” spurning illegal immigration into the U.S.
The measure would rescind any work visa provisions for foreign nationals determined as outside “the national interest” or who had violated U.S. immigration laws.
The plan additionally considers how to make America’s immigration system “more merit-based” and orders the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to issue a report twice annually.
The DHS report would detail the total number of foreign-born people — not just non-immigrant visa holders — who are authorized for work in the U.S.
Press secretary Sean Spicer last week, meanwhile, chided journalists for treating a draft executive order as a legitimate White House document.
A circulated draft executive order would have smoothed a path for the CIA to reopen controversial overseas “black site” detention facilities which were closed by former President Barack Obama’s administration.
“This is not a product of the administration,” Spicer said Jan. 25. "This is not something the Trump administration is planning on working on or we’re talking about."
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/317243-draft-trump-orders-have-more-immigration-rules-report
