The administration of US President Donald Trump is to consider immigration legislation that includes a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen said on Tuesday, while adding that no decision on that issue has been made and a border wall remains the priority.
The US Congress is considering three options, including citizenship or permanent legal status for people who were temporarily shielded from deportation, Nielsen said in an interview.
Details on qualifying for citizenship, including on how many years to wait and other requirements, would have to be addressed.
Asked whether the president would support citizenship, she said: “I think he’s open to hearing about the different possibilities and what it means but, to my knowledge, there certainly hasn’t been any decision from the White House.”
In September last year, Trump said he would not consider citizenship for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
The options being considered by the US Congress include permanent residency, residency for a certain amount of time — perhaps three or four years, subject to renewal — and citizenship, Nielsen said.
“The idea would be that you move away from a temporary status,” she said.
In October last year, Trump presented congressional leaders with a long list of demands to accompany protection for DACA recipients, many of which Democrats greeted with a thud.
Nielsen said she was hopeful the White House and Congress could reach a deal that includes border and immigration enforcement measures.
She said building a wall along the Mexico border was “first and foremost” and the administration wanted to end “loopholes” on issues that include handling asylum claims and local police working with immigration authorities.
Nielsen said she and other senior administration officials would discuss a potential deal with members of Congress this week and Trump was to take it up in a meeting yesterday with congressional leaders on legislative priorities for the year.
Nielsen spoke hours after the president blasted Democrats for “doing nothing” to protect DACA recipients.
Trump tweeted that “DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start ‘falling in love’ with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.”
Nielsen, who visited prototypes of Trump’s proposed border wall in San Diego, said the president would request US$1.6 billion next year for the barrier, in addition to the US$1.6 billion he is seeking to build or replace 118km in California and Texas.
“It’s all a down payment,” she said. “This is not going to get us the whole wall we need, but it’s a start.”
Nielsen said closing enforcement “loopholes” was also a priority. She mentioned refusals by some local police to honor requests from federal authorities to detain people in the country illegally; special legal protections for unaccompanied children who enter the country illegally and are not from Mexico or Canada; and criteria for passing an initial screening on asylum claims.
Nielsen said she believed any permanent protection for DACA recipients should be limited to the hundreds of thousands who qualified during the three years it was in effect, not anyone who would meet the criteria if it were still in place.
She said it should include permission to work.
Nielsen also faces a Monday deadline on whether to extend permission for about 200,000 Salvadorans to remain in the country with temporary protected status, which is designed to protect foreigners fleeing natural disasters.
“Getting them to a permanent solution is a much better plan than having them live six months, to 12 months to 18 months,” she said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese