Trump calls on lawmakers to back merit-based immigration after senators reach DACA deal

President Trump pressed lawmakers on Thursday to back a merit-based immigration system, after a group of senators said they have an agreement on a narrower immigration deal that would strengthen border security and protect “Dreamers,” — immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

“While the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working hard to come up with a solution to DACA, they should be strongly considering a system of Merit Based Immigration so that we will have the people ready, willing and able to help all of those companies moving into the USA!” Trump wrote on Twitter, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. 

While the Republicans and Democrats in Congress are working hard to come up with a solution to DACA, they should be strongly considering a system of Merit Based Immigration so that we will have the people ready, willing and able to help all of those companies moving into the USA!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 15, 2018

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A bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement Wednesday on a deal that would extend protections for Dreamers in exchange for roughly $25 billion for border security. 

That agreement is much narrower in scope than the one proposed by the White House, which seeks a more sweeping overhaul of the nation’s immigration system, including an end to family-based immigration. 

Trump has repeatedly called for a system of merit-based immigration that would grant entry to foreigners with skills deemed beneficial to the U.S. He has also urged lawmakers to end the diversity visa lottery system, which grants visas to certain people from countries with low levels of immigration to the U.S. 

Many Democrats, however, have said that such proposals are non-starters in any immigration deal. 

Lawmakers have scrambled since September to resolve the situation of hundreds of thousands of Dreamers, whose status in the U.S. was thrown into uncertainty when Trump rescinded the Obama-era DACA program.

That program offered young immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children a temporary reprieve from deportation, as well as permission to work in the U.S.