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United States President Donald Trump plans to institute the ban through an executive order, which he said he would likely sign on Wednesday.
The President of the United States, Donald Trump. Image: AFP.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said Tuesday that his new United States immigration ban would last 60 days and would apply to those seeking “green cards” for permanent residence in an effort to protect Americans seeking to regain jobs. lost to the coronavirus.
Trump plans to institute the ban through an executive order, which he said he would likely sign on Wednesday. He said it would not apply to people who enter the United States on a temporary basis and will be reevaluated after the 60-day period has elapsed.
Trump said pausing immigration would put “jobless Americans first in line for jobs” as the country reopens.
“It would be wrong and unfair for Americans fired by the virus to be replaced by new immigrant workers arriving from abroad. We must take care of the American worker first, ”he told reporters at the White House.
Trump said there would be some exemptions to the order and that he could renew it for another 60 days or more.
The Republican president won the White House in 2016 in part on the promise of cracking down on immigration. Critics viewed his announcement as a move to capitalize on a crisis to implement a long-sought political goal.
The order could lead to legal action.
A senior administration official said the administration was considering a separate action to cover others affected by US immigration policy. USA, including those with so-called H-1B visas.
Trump confirmed that a secondary order was being considered.
The first request would include exemptions for people involved in the coronavirus outbreak response, including farmworkers and those who help secure the food supply in the United States, the official said.
As the country begins to open up its economy, immigration flows were expected to increase, and the administration wanted to make sure that employers hired laid-off workers rather than employing lower-paid immigrants.
The United States Department of State issued approximately 462,000 immigrant visas in fiscal year 2019, which began on October 1, 2018. The visas allow an immigrant to obtain legal permanent resident status, informally known as a green card. The state allows a person to live and work in the United States and apply for citizenship after a period of five years.
Critics viewed Trump’s new policy as an effort to distract himself from his response to the pandemic.
“I think this is a malevolent distraction,” said Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress, a left-wing political institute in Washington.
Giovanni Peri, professor of economics at the University of California at Davis, said researchers generally agree that immigration to the United States has spurred economic growth, increased the size of the economy and created jobs.
“The idea that immigration threatens American jobs just doesn’t exist in any data,” he said.
VENTILATION FLAMES
Under separate immigration action, tech industry workers on H-1B visas may need to provide updated certifications to the government that they are not displacing US workers. That was one of the few proposals that were analyzed.
“As a general matter, we don’t have to shut down legal immigration to reopen the United States, and that’s what we focus on: reopening safely and getting the economy back on track,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer. from the United States Chamber of Commerce.
Early in his presidency, Trump issued an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USA (USCIS), to tighten its policies on H-1B visas, which are largely used by the technology industry to attract skilled workers.
Critics of the visas say they have been monopolized by staff firms that bring in workers who displace Americans, often in technical administrative jobs. But visas are also used by the health and education sectors and other companies that recruit workers who generally have degrees.
The United States has more cases of coronavirus than any other country by far, and immigration is effectively cut anyway at this time through border restrictions and flight bans.
Immigration advocates scoffed at the claim that immigration was being cut to protect the health of Americans.
Andrea Flores, deputy director of policy for the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued several Trump immigration policies, said Trump seemed “more interested in fanning anti-immigrant flames than saving lives” with his latest proposal.
The Trump campaign plans to again highlight immigration in the 2020 election battle, and the president regularly highlights progress in building the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
However, the problem may have less resonance this year.
The coronavirus outbreak has dramatically altered priorities among many Americans in recent months, especially within the Trump Republican Party, according to a Reuters / Ipsos public opinion poll. Their latest poll, conducted April 15-21, found that the economy had replaced immigration as the most cited concern by Republicans.
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