Trump hits pause on issuing of US green cards in clampdown
● Temporary morgue in Madrid to close as country set to let children out
US president Donald Trump announced what he described as a “temporary suspension of immigration into the United States”.
But an executive order he was expected to sign last night to implement the change was set to bar only those seeking permanent residency, not temporary workers.
“I will be signing my executive order prohibiting immigration into our country today,” Mr Trump tweeted yesterday.
The president said he would put a 60-day pause on the issuance of green cards in an effort to limit competition for jobs in a US economy wrecked by the coronavirus. The order would include “certain exemptions”, he said, but he declined to outline them, noting the order was still being crafted.
“By pausing immigration, we’ll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens, so important,” Mr Trump said at the White House. “It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labour flown in from abroad.”
An administration official familiar with the plans said the order would apply to foreigners seeking employmentbased green cards and relatives of green card holders who are not citizens. Americans wishing to bring immediate family will still be able to do so, according to the official. About one million green cards were granted in the 2019 fiscal year – about half to spouses, children and parents of US citizens. By limiting his immigration measure to green cards, Mr Trump was leaving untouched hundreds of thousands of foreign workers granted non-immigrant visas each year, including farm workers, health care workers and software programmers. The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, estimated some 110,000 green cards could be delayed during a two-month pause.
Mr Trump said he would consider extending the restrictions, depending on economic conditions at the time.
The US president has long advocated restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration and has raised concerns for years about foreigners competing with American citizens for jobs.
But he denied he was using the virus to make good on a long-standing campaign promise as he seeks re-eleccentres tion. “No, I’m not doing that all,” he said. The president has also used the crisis to push other stalled priorities, from tax reform to dramatic border restrictions.
Mr Trump has often pivoted to his signature issue of immigration when he is under pressure. It is one he believes helped him win the 2016 election and one that continues to animate his loyal base of supporters heading into what is expected to be a brutal re-election fight.
Two pet cats in New York state have meanwhile tested positive for coronavirus, marking the first cases in companion animals in the United States, federal officials say.
The cats, which had mild respiratory illnesses and are expected to recover, are thought to have contracted the virus from people in their households or neighbourhoods, the US Department of Agriculture and the federal for Disease Control and Prevention say.
The finding, which comes after positive tests in seven tigers and lions at the Bronx Zoo, add to a small number of confirmed cases of the virus in animals worldwide.
In Europe, one of the grimmest symbols of the coronavirus outbreak – a morgue set up in a Madrid skating rink – closed yesterday as stores and other businesses reopened.
Spain, one of the world’s worst-hit countries, planned to allow children out of their homes next week for the first time in nearly six weeks. The country’s death toll reached nearly 22,000, behind only the US and Italy, after 435 more deaths were reported yesterday. But the numbers reflected a plateauing of the outbreak. German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said “very careful steps” must be taken to keep the virus from making a resurgence.