WASHINGTON (TIP) :  President Donald Trump on Tuesday, July 14 said he will soon sign a merit-based immigration act that will also take care of the immigrants brought to the country illegally as children and protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

“We’re going to be signing an immigration act very soon,” Trump told reporters Tuesday, July 14  at a White House press briefing. “It’s going to be based on merit. It’s going to be very strong.”

Trump has previously said he would seek sweeping changes to U.S. immigration policy through an executive order. Critics — including high-profile lawmakers in the president’s own party — have questioned whether he has the legal authority to overhaul immigration laws without passing legislation through Congress.

The president cast immigration in partisan terms on Tuesday, attacking Democratic rival Joe Biden over what he described as lax policies toward those illegally entering the U.S. Trump is seeking to reprise an issue that helped him win election in 2016 as he lags in polls behind Biden.

Trump, who has been repeatedly stymied on Capitol Hill as he has pursued efforts to toughen immigration criteria, said he believed the Supreme Court provided him new powers when it rejected the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, which provides legal status for some young migrants in the country illegally.

“Very importantly, we’ll be taking care of people from DACA in a very Republican way,” Trump said.

Last month, a divided Supreme Court rebuked Trump by blocking him from ending the Obama administration program.

Trump has offered no specific explanation of why he believes the Supreme Court decision — which found his administration did not follow proper procedure in eliminating DACA — granted him substantial new immigration authority.

His foray into immigration comes even as the U.S. has largely shut down the issuance of new work visas and green cards for the remainder of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

(With inputs from PTI)