Trump says he will soon sign new merit-based immigration act

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday 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 DACA programme.

"We are going to be signing an immigration act very soon. It is going to be based on merit, it is going to be very strong," Trump told reporters at a Rose Garden press conference at the White House.

"We are going to work on DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) because we want to make people happy and I will tell you even conservative Republicans want to see something happen with DACA," he said.