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President Donald Trump said on April 21 that his new US 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 recover lost jobs. due to coronavirus.
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Trump plans to institute the ban through an executive order, which he said he would likely sign on April 22. He said it would not apply to people entering the United States on a temporary basis and would be reevaluated once the 60 day period had passed.
“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, ”Trump told reporters at the White House. He said there would be some exemptions to the order and that he could renew it for another 60 days or even more.
The 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.
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The order would include exemptions for people involved in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, including agricultural workers and those who help secure the food supply in the United States, he said.
The official said that as the country begins to open up its economy, immigration flows were expected to increase, and the administration wanted to make sure employers hire laid-off workers rather than employ lower-paid immigrants. .
Trump confirmed that a secondary order was under consideration for a separate time.
The United States Department of State issued approximately 4.62,000 immigrant visas in fiscal year 2019, which began on October 1, 2018. Visas allow an immigrant to obtain legal permanent resident status, informally known as a card green. 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.
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Giovanni Peri, professor of economics at the University of California, Davis, said that 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 simply doesn’t exist in any data, he said.
Fanning 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.
Early in his presidency, Mr. 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 bachelor’s or higher degrees.
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The United States has more cases of coronavirus than any other country by far. Immigration advocates scoffed at the claim that immigration was being cut to protect the health of Americans.
Immigration is effectively cut anyway at this time through border restrictions and flight bans put in place to stop the spread of the virus.
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. The coronavirus outbreak has dramatically altered priorities among many Americans in recent months, especially within President Trump’s Republican Party, according to the Reuters / public opinion poll. Ipsos. Their latest poll, conducted April 15-21, found that the economy has replaced immigration as the most cited concern by Republicans.
