WASHINGTON President Donald Trump claimed in his speech to Congress last week that he could save countless dollars, raise workers wages and help struggling families with one trick: switching to a merit-based immigration system, like Canadas or Australias.

He made a similar case several days later in a tweet . First, he promoted Green Card Warrior, a book that had recently been featured on Fox & Friends, and then he wrote, The merit-based system is the way to go. Canada, Australia!

Immigration and labor experts, however, are skeptical of such a system not because they oppose any consideration of would-be immigrants qualifications, but because they suspect what Trump and his allies really want is fewer immigrants overall.

Im concerned that what the Trump administration intends with a merit-based program is not to add to the high-skilled; its to cut away everything around the high-skilled, said Tamar Jacoby, a Republican who supports immigration reform and president of ImmigrationWorks USA. Its not my first concern that theyre going to bring too many computer programmers. Its that theyre not going to bring enough of other different kinds of workers that we need.

The president argues that immigration hurts Americans. But most economists disagree , concluding that both authorized and unauthorized immigrants have a small positive effect on economic growth. Thats largely because they spend their earnings on goods and services, plowing the money back into the economy.

Trumps joint address singled out low-skilled workers and those who cannot support themselves financially as the problem. Switching away from this current system of lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have many benefits, he said. It will save countless dollars, raise workers wages and help struggling families including immigrant families enter the middle class.