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Citizenship and visa requirements will be tightened and immigration loopholes will be closed, the Trump administration has announced.
Joseph Edlow, the new director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said in an interview with The New York Times on Friday that the current naturalization test is too easy and does not reflect the intent of the law.
“The test, as it’s laid out right now, it’s not very difficult,” Edlow said.
“It’s very easy to kind of memorize the answers. I don’t think we’re really comporting with the spirit of the law.”
Immigrants seeking US citizenship will be required to answer more civics questions correctly in order to gain citizenship.
Edlow said significant changes would be made to the H-1B visa program for skilled foreign workers, which has been the source of bitter clashes between advocates of immigration restriction and tech companies.
Edlow said the program should favor applicants offered higher wages, to ensure that it supplements American workers, rather than displacing them from their jobs for lower-paid foreign candidates.
USCIS has also announced its intention to close loopholes in the Special Immigrant Juvenile program, which provides a pathway to legal residency and citizenship for foreign minors who are deemed to have been abused, abandoned or neglected.
A review of files associated with the program showed widespread abuse. Hundreds of gangs members and violent offenders, including 600 members of MS-13, were found to have used the program to gain legal residence. The review noted significant levels of age and identity fraud.
“Criminal aliens are infiltrating the U.S. through a program meant to protect abused, neglected, or abandoned alien children,” USCIS spokesman Matthew J. Tragesser said in a statement.
“This report exposes how the open border lobby and activist judges are exploiting loopholes in the name of aiding helpless children.”
In recent days, President Trump has adopted a much harder stance on avenues for legal migration including the H-1B program. At an event in Washington, he blasted the tech industry for favouring foreign workers over Americans.
“For too long, much of our tech industry pursued a radical globalism that left millions of Americans feeling distrustful and betrayed,” Trump said at the July 23 “Winning the AI Race” event in Washington.
“Many of our largest tech companies have reaped the blessings of American freedom while building their factories in China, hiring workers in India, and stashing profits in Ireland, you know that. All the while dismissing and even censoring their fellow citizens right here at home.”
“Those days are over,” Trump continued.
“We need US technology companies to be all in for America. We want you to put America first. You have to do that.”
Another new measure will be a “visa integrity fee” of $250 for nearly all foreign nationals seeking temporary entry to the US. It is expected to generate billions in revenue.
