(Image source from: CBC)

Deploring that skilled foreign students are leaving the United States after their completion of course of study from country's best educational institutions, President Donald Trump said he wants people with merit to stay in the U.S. and help in the growth of American firms.

Addressing a press conference on Friday, Trump said: "The U.S. is losing out on great minds" as the country has a "ridiculous" immigration policy.

He restates his wish to end loopholes in the legal immigration system so as to pull in more people based on merit. Trump said his administration wants people to come into the country legally and on merit.

"We have all these companies coming in. We need great people. But we want them to come in on a merit basis, and they have to come in on a merit basis. They can't come in the way they've been coming in for years," Trump told reporters during a news conference.

"I get calls from the great tech companies, and they're saying we don't allow people at the top of their class, at the best schools in the country, we don't allow them to stay in our country.

"So, they end up going back to China and Japan and so many other countries all over the world, and we don't keep them. They get educated at our finest schools, and then we don't allow them, through a various set of circumstances, to have any guarantees of staying. So we lose out on great minds. We can't do that," he said.

Trump was mentioning the troubles being faced by foreign students to stay and work in the U.S. after they complete their education in the country.

Trump said that this issue was discussed with Democratic Congressional leadership during a meeting at the White House on Friday.

"We discussed that with the Democrats, and I think they agree. We're working on that. But we don't want to lose our great companies because we have a ridiculous policy that we won't accept smart people. So, call it politically correct or not, but we have to let these great, brilliant companies have the smartest people in the world," Trump said.

He said if somebody wants to seek asylum, there's a way to do that. "There are legal ways to come to this country, and legal immigration has made this country great."

Referring to the death of an Indian-origin police officer in California, Trump said: "America lets in over a million people every single year. By far, the most generous nation in the world. And yet, we have laws that need to be followed to keep Americans safe and to protect the integrity of a system where, right now, there are millions of people who are waiting in line to come to America to seek the American Dream, like Officer Singh did when he sought his chance at the American Dream."

"That dream was taken. It was taken because we don't have a secure border. We can't let this continue," he said.

-Sowmya Sangam