GOP/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Family relationships have long formed the core of the U.S. immigration system. These preferences are now being targeted by Republicans led by President Donald Trump, who wants to reduce legal as well as illegal immigration to the U.S.
Mr. Trump and his allies have begun derisively using the term ‘chain migration’ to describe the system that allows U.S. citizens to sponsor relatives to come to the U.S., and then allows those immigrants to become citizens and sponsor other relatives…
Mr. Trump also again attacked the diversity visa lottery program, which admits 50,000 people chosen at random from countries that are underrepresented in U.S. immigration. The suspect in the recent deadly New York truck attack was admitted through this lottery…
About two-thirds the people awarded green cards each year get them based on family ties. The bulk go to close family, not far-flung relatives. More than a half-million green cards last year—about half of all green cards issued—went to spouses, minor children and parents of U.S. citizens. Siblings and adult children are also eligible, but there are numerical caps and the wait can be decades long.
Mr. Trump has proposed changing the law so that citizens can sponsor only their spouses and minor children, eliminating the ability to bring adult children, parents or siblings.”
-Laura Meckler and Alicia A. Caldwell, “Republicans Led by Donald Trump Challenge Family-Based Immigration,” The Wall Street Journal online, Dec. 12, 2017 07:26pm