At SOTU, Potus reiterates merit-based immigration

New York: In a speech brimming with patriotism and the America First concept, President Donald Trump has reiterated the US commitment to strengthen its military, protect its borders and reset its trading relationships while calling for ‘merit-based’ immigration system.

"This is our new American moment," Trump declared in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night in Washington as he took a victory lap for the economic achievements of the first year of his presidency and laid out an agenda for the rest of it.

In his 80-minute speech in the House chamber of the Capitol, Trump renewed his campaign call "to make America great again for all Americans" by working "all of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family." Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Paul Ryan were at the event.  

The speech, mostly devoted to domestic issues, was punctuated with spectacles for television with Trump calling out at appropriate points in his speech to crime victims, business people, beneficiaries of his economic programmes, soldiers, a crippled North Korean refugee and others seated in the audience with anecdotes about them.   

In his speech, Trump took credit for the massive tax reforms, the 2.4 million jobs created in the last year, the lowest unemployment for African Americans, stock markets setting records adding $8 trillion in value and investments and manufacturing returning to the US.
Immigration issue figured prominently in Trump's speech as he appealed for a "fair compromise". "It is time to begin moving towards a merit-based immigration system -- one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society and who will love and respect our country," he said.

Currently, Indian professionals have a 11-year wait to get their permanent resident status with green cards because of national quota restrictions. A purely merit-based system like those in Canada and Australia, which the administration has proposed, has the potential to help an estimated 500,000 Indian professionals in the queue get their green cards sooner.

Sunayana Dumala, the widow of Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was killed in a hate crime last year in Kansas, was a Congressional guest. She called the speech "welcoming and positive" on reforming immigration.

Trump offered to legalize those who were brought into the country illegally as children and ultimately give them citizenship, a move that could benefit over 5,500 Indians.

At the same time, he said "chain migration" of brothers, sisters and parents of immigrants should end. Limiting immigration to only spouses and children of immigrants would affect other aspiring immigrants from India.

Preventing illegal immigration would require building a wall on the southern border with Mexico and hiring more immigration and border security personnel, Trump said.

He called for a crackdown on criminal immigrants, particularly the members of gangs like the MS-13, which include many young people who entered the country under a programme of the administration of Barack Obama and are responsible for several murders.