In an exclusive interview with Breitbart, Pres. Trump said the country needs to import more foreign workers, but also said that he wants an immigration system that's less of a burden on American taxpayers. Since his State of the Union address, Pres. Trump has maintained a consistent call for increasing current, record-high immigration levels because of the strengthening economy.
"You do need workers," Pres. Trump said. "You have homes in Houston, and they can't get people to build the homes—and lots of other places. But because of what's happened, and because of the people coming up, they want them to come in and they don't care how they come in."
The housing market in Houston may not have been the best example. Home sales have been down for the last three months in the region, indicating that the market may have reached its peak.
Breitbart News editor-in-chief Alexander Marlow asked Pres. Trump if increasing immigration levels were a good idea after citing a recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies that found that 63% of non-citizen families that enter the United States end up using social welfare benefits.
"I don't want to have anyone coming in that's on welfare," Pres. Trump said. "We have a problem, because we have politicians that are not strong, or they have bad intentions, or they want to get votes, because they think if they come in they're going to vote Democrat, you know, for the most part."
Since endorsing the RAISE Act, introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.), in the early months of his presidency, Pres. Trump has been calling for ending chain migration and the visa lottery and for the creation of a merit-based immigration system. Chain migration and the visa lottery are the primary drivers for low-skilled immigration. But since changing his position during the State of the Union address, Pres. Trump has not detailed what type of immigration reforms he would support.
Read the full interview with Pres. Trump at Breitbart.com.
