Trump Appeals for More Legal Immigration to Fill New Jobs
President says there is an influx of companies 'coming back into our country'
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President Donald Trump said he wants to raise the number of people who are legally migrating to the U.S. "because our unemployment numbers are so low."
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the President said there is an influx of companies "coming back into our country," and that the positions need to be filled by legal immigrants.
"We have seven car companies coming back in right now, and there's going to be a lot more," Trump said.
"We've done really well with this, and we need people."
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Trump's statements came following his second State of the Union address on Tuesday night where he pushed for legal immigration.
"Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways," the president said, before ad-libbing that he wants people to enter the U.S. "in the largest numbers ever."
A reporter from the Advocate asked Trump if he was changing his immigration policy, the president replied:
"I need people coming in because we need people to run the factories and plants and companies that are moving back in. We need people."
Trump argued in his address that illegal immigrants take away jobs from middle-class Americans.
According to Fox: Trump has proposed several policies that would severely restrict legal immigration, including limiting immigrants’ ability to sponsor family members to join them.
Black Unemployment Rates Plummet, Ties Record Low In November-https://t.co/zfMm1WAUz7
— Mdl-Murray (@MdlMurray) December 10, 2018
Via - @NeonNettle#NeonNettle
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He has also slashed, for the last two years, the number of refugees the U.S. will accept.
The president was also asked Wednesday at the White House why he didn't speak about the Parkland massacre during his State of the Union address.
Three parents of students who were killed at Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, and a former student who survived the shooting, were in attendance at the event on Capitol Hill.
Trump told WPLG he "didn't know they were there," adding that he wished he'd have known.
"It’s a great group of people. I could’ve put it in. I would’ve put it in, I’ve been very involved in it," he continued. "It’s an incredible tragedy, and these are things that can be stopped."
Last July, the Trump administration noted that 36,000 manufacturing jobs for American workers had been created despite deafening silence amongst mainstream media outlets.
The new jobs are welcomed by American workers, many of whom have had their livelihoods destroyed by job-killing free trade deals like NAFTA and KORUS.
Last October, Job openings in the US rose to a record-breaking 7.136 million, according to the monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS.
The report released on Tuesday by the Labor Department surprised economists who had forecast 6.9 million for the month.
In July, the number exceeded 7 million for the first time when it hit 7.077 million.
