Washington, Jan 21 (IANS): US President Donald Trump has said he is fine with legal immigration and that the nation will need more of it as manufacturing is going to expand because of his tariff policies.
“I'm fine with legal immigration. I like it. We need people, and I'm absolutely fine with it. We want to have it”, he said on Monday at his first news conference as president.
He ran the news conference while signing executive orders at the Oval Office, which he had just entered.
As he signed orders to stop illegal migration and tighten visa procedures to stop terrorists, he gave assurance on legal immigration.
“We need it (legal immigration) because we're going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs,” he said. “You know, if you don't want tariffs all you have to do is build your plant in the US. So we're going to have a lot of workers coming in. We have to have legal immigration.”
Trump declared a national emergency at the US southern border allowing for deploying the National Guard and other forces, expediting the building of the border wall, and requiring asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico.
Some categories of children born in the US will also not get automatic citizenship, under his orders.
Another order declares drug cartels terrorist organisations.
Trump said this may allow the use of the military to go after drug cartels within Mexico.
He threatened the BRICS nations with 100 per cent tariffs if they developed an alternative currency to the dollar.
India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has already rejected the idea of a BRICS currency. India is the second biggest economy in the group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa as original members and five newer members.
Asked about his assertions that he would end the Ukraine War on his first day, Trump quipped that only a half day had passed.
He said that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to make a deal, but Russia’s President Vladimir Putin wasn’t.
He said, “I have to speak to President Putin”.
“He's destroying Russia by not making a deal. I think Russia's gonna be in big trouble,” he said.
Trump said that he had received an invitation to visit China and the trip could happen this year.
He said he would consider an across-the-board 10 per cent tariff on all imports because the US had trade deficits with all but two countries and was being taken advantage of.
The threatened 25 per cent tariffs on Canada and Mexico for allowing illegal migration and drugs to come to the US, he said would go into effect on February 1.