President Donald Trump suggested a new merit-based system to regulate entry to the United States on Tuesday, as he tried to square his hardline campaign rhetoric with the goal of broad immigration reform.
Addressing Congress, Trump stood by his plan to subject travellers from certain countries deemed a risk to extreme vetting, insisting: "We cannot allow a beachhead of terrorism to form inside America."
But - alongside this promise of "strong measures to protect our nation from radical Islamic terrorism" - he held out the prospect of a merit-based immigration system that might win cross-party support.
Arguing that mass immigration by unskilled workers costs the US taxpayer billions of dollars and depresses the wages and job opportunities of the working poor, Trump urged lawmakers to get behind reform.
"If we are guided by the well-being of American citizens then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve an outcome that has eluded our country for decades," he argued.
A merit-based system - such as those in use in Canada and Australia - would, he argued "save countless dollars, raise workers' wages, and help struggling families - including immigrant families - enter the middle class."
Path to papers
"It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a country ought to be able to support themselves financially," Trump told lawmakers.
"Yet, in America, we do not enforce this rule, straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon," he added.
US lawmakers, encouraged by the previous administration under president Barack Obama, have long sought to agree a broad-based package to provide roughly 11 million undocumented migrants with a path to legal residency.
But Republican members, in particular, faced opposition from their electoral base to any measure that smacked of an "amnesty" for illegal immigrants - a sentiment that Trump played up to during his campaign.
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