There were eyerolls. There were cheers. But response in Southern California to the Trump administration’s new plan to overhaul the legal immigration system was swift. The president’s proposal…
There were eyerolls. There were cheers. But response in Southern California to the Trump administration’s new plan to overhaul the legal immigration system was swift.
The president’s proposal to create a merit-based program that would favor younger, high-skilled workers over asylum seekers and people hoping to reunite with family members was greeted Thursday along partisan lines, panned by immigrant-rights advocates, unions and others who labeled it anti-immigration, and praised by some conservatives who favor tougher immigration policies.
The proposal’s lack of detail – and its failure to address young immigrants covered by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, also known as DACA – drew rebukes from Democrats and some Republicans in Congress. Sen. Lindsay Graham, a Republican from South Carolina who supports Trump, said the proposal “was not designed to become law.”
Locally, some immigrant advocates said Trump’s proposal simply wouldn’t be acceptable to them.
“No immigrant who came to these shores, got educated, paid taxes and in some cases fought for the nation, can be excluded from any plan. Trump’s anti-immigration plan ought to be DOA,” said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Orange County Communities Organized for Responsible Development, (OCCORD,) a non-profit community organization.
Bishop Kevin W. Vann, of the Diocese of Orange, wrote this in an e-mail: “Moving in a troubling nativist and elitist direction, the president’s plan continues to focus unhelpfully on finishing the border wall, severely limiting asylum, restricting family members, and drastically favoring majority high skill, high-wage workers.
