But with little support among Democrats for such a dramatic overhaul the effort serves as primarily a political document that Trump and Republicans can rally behind.
By Seung Min Kim Seung Min Kim White House reporter Email Bio Follow May 7 at 7:41 PM The White House is renewing a contentious battle over legal immigration, looking beyond toughened enforcement policies and President Trump’s push for a border wall to dive into the thorny issue of how many — and what kind of — immigrants should be admitted into the United States.
Kushner is pitching an overhaul to the legal immigration system that wouldn’t change the overall number of green cards issued per year, according to Senate Republicans briefed on the matter, but would ensure a significantly larger proportion is set aside for immigrants based on their professional skills and education backgrounds, rather than on family ties.
Kushner presented the broad contours of the proposal, senators said, and the administration stressed that it wants to fix a complicated system of granting visas that had become more complex with each subsequent new law. Some Republicans did have questions. For instance, Sen. Kevin Cramer pressed administration officials on how they would address the per-country caps on immigrants that critics say aggravate an already lengthy backlog of high-skilled visa applicants from countries such as India.
The broader concept of the green-card changes is drawn from a bill reintroduced last month by some of Trump’s most conservative allies that would no longer allow certain family members — such as siblings, adult children and parents of U.S. citizens — to be sponsored for permanent residency. Revamping the nation’s byzantine immigration laws is a new focus for Kushner, who has been riding on the momentum of a successful effort to revise sentencing laws and better rehabilitate low-level offenders late last year. Amid the partial government shutdown this year, Trump tasked Kushner — who is married to the president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka — to take the lead in crafting parts of the administration’s immigration agenda.
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