Trump moves to seal off country
Georgia to begin reopening despite case rise
WASHINGTON/ATLANTA • President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus outbreak took on a sharper political tone with his pledge to suspend immigration into the country, while Georgia and other U.S. states began lifting restrictions that stalled their economies.
Trump made the immigration announcement in a Twitter message late on Monday night, suggesting his action would prevent further contagion from outsiders while saving American jobs.
Trump had staked his re-election in November on the strength of a U.S. economy now sapped by the economic shutdown to stop the pandemic. He has since been pressing for states to begin easing restrictions that have left a record 22 million people unemployed.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy,” he tweeted, referring to the pandemic, “as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States.”
The White House declined to offer further details on the reasoning behind the decision, its timing or its legal basis.
Trump was due to meet later on Tuesday in the Oval Office with Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, the state hardest hit by the outbreak. The Democratic governor has voiced strong opposition to Trump’s record on immigration and has clashed with the Republican president over a lack of testing and medical equipment to fight the outbreak.
Cuomo told reporters at his daily coronavirus briefing that his meeting with Trump would focus on testing and how the federal government could work in partnership with the states.
“It’s a situation that is very difficult, and it’s a situation where — however you do it — it’s going to be a blame game,” he said. “But it’s a situation where you need everybody to work together.”
New York accounts for nearly half of the at least 43,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States, according to a Reuters tally, and even though the outbreak appears to be past its peak in New York, Cuomo has insisted on a go-slow approach to reopening.
By contrast, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, on Monday said that gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys, tattoo parlours and massage parlours could reopen on Friday, followed next Monday by movie theatres and restaurants.
Kemp described it as a measured approach to balance the health of the state’s economy with public health concerns, saying stay-home orders, social distancing and other steps to stanch the outbreak would remain in place.