Saturday, January 19, 2019 ~ USA
~ West Shore Voice News
US President Donald Trump today January 19 delivered a 12-minute speech to Americans about immigration reform with a proposal that he believes is suitable enough to break the political gridlock that has resulted in a federal government shutdown lasting now over four weeks.
He said the US immigration system has been “badly broken for a really long time”. He continued: “Over the decades, many presidents and many lawmakers have come together, and no real progress has been made on immigration.”
“We are now living with the consequences, and they are tragic, brought about by political stalemate, partisan gridlock, and national neglect. There is a humanitarian and military crisis on our southern border that requires urgent action,” the President said.
The key components in Trump’s proposal include:
- $800 million in urgent humanitarian assistance;
- $805 million toward drug detection technology to help secure ports of entry;
- 2,750 more border agents and law enforcement professionals;
- 75 new immigration judges to help reduce a court backlog of almost 900,000 cases;
- $5.7 billion for building strategic deployment of physical barriers along the border (not a continuous wall).
Trump said the ‘wall’ would be a series of steel barriers in high priority locations. “Much of the border is already protected by natural borders such as mountains and water. There are already many miles,” he said, including 115 miles that are currently being built or are under contract. “It will be done quickly. Our request will add another 230 miles this year in areas our border agents most urgently need. It will have an unbelievable impact,” Trump said in his televised/streamed speech.
Also, part of his solution is to allow minors to apply for asylum in their own Central American countries, rather than having to make a dangerous journey to the American border and an uncertain fate beyond.
Trump expressed the desire to “build trust and goodwill for real immigration reform”, offering two more points:
- three years of legislative relief for 700,000 DACA recipients brought here unlawfully by their parents many years ago including access to work permits, social security numbers, and protection from deportation;
- a three-year extension of temporary protective status (TPS) whereby about 300,000 people whose protective status is facing exploitation “will now have three more years of certainty so that Congress can work on a larger immigration deal”.
The President pledged to hold weekly bipartisan meetings at the White House “to produce a bipartisan product” within three years. But for that to happen, he said that immigration reform would have to start happening including a down payment on border security and the government re-opened.
More:
Link to President Trump’s January 19, 2019 immigration speech on YouTube.