Donald Trump has announced that he intends to sign an executive order suspending immigration to the U.S in light of coronavirus. How he’ll do this, for how long, and how it will affect green card holders was information that he did not include in the tweet he used to make his announcement.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, 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!” he tweeted Monday.
Immigration into the U.S. has already largely been put on hold, so it’s not clear what further measures he intends to take. What is obvious to advocates is that whatever the intention is, it’s not good.
“This is not about the policy. It is about the message the president wants to send. He wants people to turn against ‘the other.’” Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, wrote in a tweet. “And, regardless of the valuable contributions immigrants are making to the response and recovery, he sees immigrants as the easiest to blame.”
Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro also tweeted that, “This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda. We must come together to reject his division.”
Trump’s tweet comes hours after he spoke optimistically about certain states reopening their economies, despite the continued threat of the virus.