New immigrant ban aims ‘to protect our U.S. workers’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, citing the economic impact of the coronavirus shutdown, on Tuesday ordered a 60-day ban on new immigrants seeking permanent status in the United States.
The ban will cover people seeking green cards that provide permanent status, not temporary visitors. It would also not affect foreign agricultural workers, Trump said. Although he cited the need to protect American workers, his announcement did not spell out how the order would accomplish that goal.
The administration has already sharply restricted immigration, including steps taken last month to respond to the coronavirus outbreak. White House officials have suggested separate actions could affect foreign workers currently in industries that are not considered essential, though Trump suggested Tuesday that no such steps are imminent.
The president said he expected to sign the new order Wednesday, although he added that “it’s being written now as we speak,” suggesting that important details could still change.
“We want to protect our U.S. workers,” Trump said in announcing the ban.
“By pausing immigration, we will put Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens,” he added. “A short break from new immigration will protect the solvency of our health care system and provide relief to jobless Americans.”
Trump tweeted Monday night that he planned to sign an order to “temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” White House officials were unable to answer questions about what the president intended.
On Tuesday, Trump acknowledged the ban was not the sweeping sealing off of the United States that his tweet had hinted at, and he added that immigrants already in the United States “are not supposed to be” in more danger of removal under the order.
He also suggested that some immigration for family unification may continue.
“We have to do that obviously even from a humane standpoint, there will be some people coming in,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, the president’s re-election campaign sent an email to supporters tout
“The farmers will not be affected. … We’re going to make it easier.”
President Donald Trump
ing the potential action and denouncing “fierce criticism from the Fake News media and their Democrat Partners” even as no details had been announced and no order had been signed.
Trump’s executive action is likely to face legal challenge.
Although an across-the-board ban had never been imposed in the U.S., immigration law gives the president broad authority to restrict entries in emergencies.
Already, most entries into the U.S. have been put on hold. Just Monday, the administration extended what is in effect the closure of U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico to “nonessential travel,” as well as a controversial order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that immigration officials are citing to rapidly expel most migrants at the U.S. southern border.
In a month, U.S. border authorities have turned back roughly 11,000 would-be migrants with minimal processing, including, for the first time under the U.S. modern immigration system, asylum-seekers and hundreds of unaccompanied children.
Most visa offices abroad have closed, applications for other travel to the U.S. have been frozen, and interviews for citizenship and other forms of permanent legal status have been suspended. Immigration courts across the country have been shuttered, and hearings suspended or rescheduled.
The refugee program, already drastically reduced, has in effect ground to a halt.
The administration has made exceptions for some workers, however. Officials recently touted bringing in Mexican and Central American agricultural laborers and extending H-2A permissions for agriculture and seasonal workers, saying that would “protect the nation’s food supply chain, and lessen impacts from the coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency.”
On Tuesday, Trump assured that with the new ban, “The farmers will not be affected … If anything, we’re going to make it easier.”