President Donald Trump's new immigration plan that emphasizes a merit-based system is dialing back a decades-old family unification priority that was "out of balance," GOP consultant and political commentator Karl Rove said Thursday.
In remarks on Fox News' "The Daily Briefing With Dana Perino," Rove said the family unification policy stemmed from the 1960s under JFK.
Over the years, Rove argued, "the dial was too much over on family unification and we needed to move it back towards merit."
"If you get rid of the visa lottery, you can keep family unification stable," he declared. "But you'll have more people coming here because of merit, because they have education work experience and English proficiency."
Rove said the Trump plan is not "wiping out family unification."
"But [it] is having a point system, much like Australia and Canada . . . [and] puts a greater emphasis on education, work experience."
He also chided Senate Democrats who criticized the president's plan.
"If you want to solve the problem for the people in America here, grab this as the first offer and sit down and try to get something done," Rove urged. "Don't sit here and play politics with it. You had your chance to do it when you were totally in control in '09 and '10 and you didn't do anything. Please, put the interest of the country first and stop the partisanship."
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