The Trump Administration today said that its top priority right now is addressing the challenge of illegal immigration and reforms in the legal immigration, including H-1B visas, would come later.
"We've got to look at this from a priority level. Right now, there's, millions of people in this country that are in the country illegally. I think the focus continues to be that 800,000 or 900,000 that have already had an order to have them removed and get them processed through in a way that continues to keep America safe," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at his daily news conference.
Responding to a question, Spicer said legal immigration is a completely separate subject.
"That includes visa reform and all that other stuff. The President has talked about that. He's talked about it with business leaders, H-1B visas, et cetera," he said.
"You're going to see more of that coming, but I think there's a prioritisation of how we deal with immigration both illegal and then legal, and we'll have more on that later," Spicer said in response to a question.
This week, US President Donald Trump is expected to issue a new executive order that would replace his previous executive order that suspended entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries and that of the Syrian refugees.
His January 27 executive orders in this regard has been stayed by a federal court.
The White House said there is nothing wrong or unconstitutional with that order as the President has constitutional right to do so.
"I go back to the merits of the case and the order that gives him the authority to make that US Code 1182 is very clear. The President was very clear in his executive order that these were countries that we didn't have the proper vetting for when it came to ensuring the safety of Americans. That's what the executive order said," Spicer said.
Trump, he asserted, would continue to take steps to necessary to protect this country.
"That's why he's talked about, you know, fighting this on both fronts; making sure that we keep evolving through the court system on the existing E L, and then looking towards the next draft of the executive order that will continue to achieve the goal of protecting the American people," he said.