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Donald Trump has announced a 60-day ban on immigrants seeking to live and work in the United States permanently, and said he could extend it depending on the economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
The President of the United States framed the executive order, which he hopes to sign on Wednesday, in an effort to protect American workers from foreign competition. He said it would apply only to those seeking green cards and not to temporary workers, but did not explain how those whose applications are currently being processed would be affected.
“By pausing immigration, we will help put unemployed Americans on the front line of work as the United States reopens, it is very important,” Trump told reporters at the coronavirus task force briefing on Tuesday. “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. ”
The “pause” would be in force for 60 days, he added, after which the need for an extension or alternation would be reviewed “depending on the economic conditions of the time.” Under questioning, he confirmed that he could decide to add another 30 days or more.
Trump said: “This order will only apply to people seeking permanent residence. In other words, those who receive green cards. Big Factor It won’t apply to those who enter temporarily … We want to protect our American workers, and I think that as we move forward, we will protect ourselves more and more from them. ”
The president, who has long campaigned against illegal immigration and re-promoted his border wall between Mexico and the United States at Tuesday’s briefing, added that the move would help conserve medical resources for American citizens.
About a million people received green cards last year. Most are family-based immigration sponsorships for the permanent residence of foreign nationals by their US spouses. Alexander Hunter-Mihalić, a CNN producer, tweeted: “My wife’s green card renewal is being processed, or was being processed. What does that mean to her?
The comments followed an ambiguous tweet on Monday night that surprised its own officials and sparked a backlash from immigration rights groups and Democrats.
Joe Biden, the alleged Democratic candidate who will face Trump in the November election, said: “Instead of executing a quick and aggressive effort to increase the evidence, Donald Trump is tweeting incendiary rhetoric about immigrants in the hope that can distract everyone from the core. ” Truth: It has moved too slow to contain this virus, and we are all paying the price for it. “
Ali Noorani, president of the National Immigration Forum, said: “President Trump’s call to suspend immigration to the US Ignores the reality of our situation: the fact is that immigrants stand shoulder to shoulder with US citizens in front line helping us get through this. ” pandemic. How many families would be left without health care, food, or otherwise if it weren’t for the immigrants working alongside Native Americans yesterday, today, and tomorrow?
Immigrants represent 17% of healthcare workers and 24% of direct care workers across the country, Noorani added, while H-1B visa holders are helping to find a vaccine for Covid-19. And farmworkers remain essential to maintaining food chains that supply grocery stores.
Mayra Macías, executive director of Latino Victory, said: “Trump is once again using his old scapegoat immigrant playbook to cover up his failures. But we will not be fooled, it is doing so to distract us from its disastrous response to the coronavirus pandemic. “
In practice, much of the US immigration system. USA It has already been paralyzed by the pandemic. Travel from China, parts of Europe and Iran is mostly prohibited and most state department visa services are suspended. The administration has used the crisis to effectively end asylum at the borders of the United States, including rejecting children who arrive alone and stopping the resettlement of refugees.
At Tuesday’s briefing, Trump was also questioned about an antimalarial drug he has been relentlessly promoting as a therapy for the coronavirus, defending a Democratic state representative in Michigan who said he benefited from it and frequently imploring: “What do you have to to lose?”
An analysis showed that nearly a third of military veterans died when treated with hydroxychloroquine, more than patients who received standard treatment. The president seemed to ignore the finding and said: “Obviously there have been some very good reports. This may not be a good report, but we will analyze it. “
Dr. Stephen Hahn, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, cautioned against drawing firm conclusions from the sample of 368 patients. “This study is a small retrospective study in the VA [Veterans Affairs]Hahn said. “This is something a doctor would need to consider as part of a decision when writing a prescription for hydroxychloroquine.”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump welcomed Andrew Cuomo, the New York governor, to the White House, with the most important evidence on the agenda. He said they agreed that the hospital ship USNS Comfort was no longer required by the state. “I asked Andrew if we could return the Comfort to its base in Virginia so we could have it elsewhere and he said we could do it.”
“We will return the ship as soon as possible and prepare it for its next mission, which is sure to be very important as well.” But it was an honor. “
The United States has 823,786 confirmed cases of the virus and 44,999 deaths, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University. More than 4 million people have been evaluated.
