How to Watch President Trump’s Speech to Congress

Frank Sharry, founder and executive director of America’s Voice, a liberal-leaning organization that advocates for immigrants, said, “Trump continues to tag immigrants as criminals, a charge as false as it is cruel”.

Trump also said he believes President Barack Obama is behind some of the protests against Republican lawmakers across the country. Democratic Senators from IL are following suit: Dick Durbin will host Aaima Sayed, a medical student and legal resident status under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and Luis Gutiérrez is bringing “a woman, a Muslim, an immigration lawyer who works with clients targeted by the Muslim Ban, and the daughter of refugees from Gaza”, according a Medium post he wrote yesterday.

As a result, the speech to Congress was billed by White House officials as a chance to reboot the administration. Almost, I must say, reasoned and reasonably well delivered.

“To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a Dollars 1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States – financed through both public and private capital – creating millions of new jobs”, Trump said. “It begins as of now and we’ll have tremendous success”. It seems preposterous to us, but perhaps it will serve the objective of actually compiling reliable statistics about the rate of crime among the immigrant population both those here legally and illegally. That could be a workable place to restart discussions about broad immigration reform – as long as there is a recognition that there also needs to be a legal status for the immigrants who work in Florida’s fields, tourism industry and other low-wage jobs that are often seasonal and hard to fill.

He proposed changing the legal immigration from family-based, meaning that relatives of immigrants are granted preference into the US, to a merit-based system, where a person is accepted based on skills and need. The theme was American greatness, a “renewal of the American spirit” and a ‘message of unity and strength.’ For the most part the Democrats looked on stony faced, several with their thumbs noticeably pointed downwards. That excited Republicans who have had to suffer through bad week after bad week at the White House.

“I won’t call it coordinated, but they were consulted”. It also echoes the changes proposed by Sen.

Beck said Trump’s merit-based immigration proposal was “a big deal”. Companies such as Carrier, Sprint, Ford, General Motors, and Wal-Mart have already signaled that they plan to reinvest in America. “We should give our great state governors the resources and flexibility they need with Medicaid to make sure no one is left out”, Trump said.

There was no “I alone” can fix the country’s broken systems, such as we heard when he accepted his party’s nomination for president in summer 2016.

In recent weeks, Trump has expressed openness to revisiting past immigration reform efforts, including the failed 2013 “Gang of Eight” bill, which drew opposition from Republicans.