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In his speech Tuesday night, Trump proposed prioritizing prospective immigrants based on merit. "Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have many benefits," Trump said. Michelle Griffin-Young, Executive Vice President of The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce, said Trump's vision is sitting well with business leaders. According to Griffin-Young, companies are struggling to find qualified candidates. "We need the skilled labor, it's difficult to find them, while we are working to figure out how to get people to get on par of what companies need, we absolutely need the H1B visas," Griffin-Young said. H1B visas are employment-based, and hard to get. There's a cap on how many can be issued each year. Griffin-Young said more employment visas for skilled workers like engineers and doctors would benefit even lower-skilled laborers. "It will mean higher wages for Americans, greater innovation, greater opportunities for business to grow, when businesses grow people at all levels are able to gain higher wages," Griffin-Young said. But Trump's desire to implement an immigration system aimed at boosting economic development isn't sitting well with everyone. Katie Albarelli, an Allentown-based immigration attorney, said it could be devastating for some of her clients. "It's causing distress for family-based immigrants," Katie Albarelli said. The way the system stands now, U.S. citizens can sponsor family members living in other countries. The priority of those applications depend on the relationship between the members. Albarelli said the highest demand, and longest backlogs, are for immigrants who have an brother or sister in the U.S. and for adult children of U.S. citizens. Currently, there are people who've been on waiting lists for 20 years. Albarelli questions what Trump's plan will mean for people already on decades-long waiting lists to get into the country through family sponsorship. "Will they be grandfathered in? Will there be provision made for them? Or are they just going to be out in the cold?" Albarelli said. Albarelli fears the government may do away with some visa sponsorship opportunities, most at risk, she said are adult children sponsorships and sibling sponsorships. "It creates a culture of fear for all of immigration, a culture of inhumanity, a culture of we are not going to reunite families, that is something the United States has long stood for," Albarelli said. The president has not yet released a plan of how he would like to implement a merit-based system. Read the original article here.