Coronavirus: US Green Cards USA They will be suspended for 60 days, says Trump

President Donald Trump has said that his plan to ban immigration to the US USA It will last 60 days and will apply only to those seeking permanent residence.

Speaking the day after announcing the move in an ambiguous tweet, Trump said the move would protect American jobs during the coronavirus crisis.

The decision would not affect temporary visas for workers.

Critics say it is trying to divert attention from its response to the virus. The United States has almost 45,000 deaths.

Democrats also accuse the administration of using the pandemic to fight immigration. The issue has traditionally been a strong campaign issue for Trump, a Republican, but has been in the background during the crisis and before the November elections.

In a briefing on the White House coronavirus, Trump said the executive order with the decision would likely be signed on Wednesday. The ban could be extended “much more” depending on how the economy fares, he said.

After vowing to suspend “all immigration to the United States” on Monday night, Trump apparently changed his original plan, which reportedly included immigrants as farm workers and high-tech employees on special visas after a backlash from some business leaders.

What did President Trump say?

More than 20 million Americans have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus outbreak, and the president said the government had a “solemn duty” to make sure they get their jobs back.

“It would be wrong and unfair for Americans fired by the virus to be replaced by new immigrant workers sent from abroad,” he said, adding that there may be some exceptions to the measure.

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“We want to protect our American workers, and I think that as we move forward we will protect ourselves more and more.”

Trump’s order could provoke legal challenges.

The United States has the highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the world, more than 820,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the disease globally.

What are green cards?

• They give immigrants permanent legal residence and the opportunity to apply for US citizenship
• In a typical year, nearly a million green cards are issued in the US. USA
• Most, about 70%, target those with family members living in the US. According to a 2018 report by the US Senate. USA
• For employment-based green cards, a common form of residency status, approximately 80% is issued to those already in the country, moving from a temporary visa to permanent residence

Playing for his base

Details of Donald Trump’s “immigration ban” have emerged, and it turns out that the proposal is not as broad as his tweet originally suggested. The 60-day withholding applies only to permanent residents, not temporary workers.

However, that means the public health justification for the move is even more tenuous. Detection of the virus in immigrants appears to be as effective as a total stop. As many suspected, the main justification is economic. From the President’s point of view, permanent workers compete with American citizens for jobs, and in a financial crisis, their presence is neither necessary nor desired.

Many economists will not quickly agree, arguing that the benefits of immigration outweigh the costs. However, that is a public policy debate that President Trump will be happy to have. There is also a very real possibility that the order could get stuck in court, a fate that succeeded the president’s immigration orders made in the early days of his presidency.

Although the administration eventually prevailed, those battles took time. And the end of Trump’s first term at this point is measured in months, not years. However, the president could bet that his base will appreciate the effort and give him another four years in November.

What has been the reaction?

Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum wrote on Twitter that “immigrants represent 17% of health workers and 24% of direct care workers” in the United States.

“It is unfortunate that the president prefers the scapegoat to the other than to build a consensus that helps overcome this crisis.”

The United States Immigration Council tweeted that “[President] Trump’s actions are designed to distract us and separate us from the fact that the United States now has the highest death and coronavirus infection. “

Andrea Flores, an immigration expert at the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote: “Xenophobia is not a public health response.”