Trump's Blatant and Covert Attacks on Immigrants
(Trump speaks as Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller listens during a round-table discussion on border security in the Cabinet Room of the White House on January 11, 2019. Photo by Alex Wong via Getty Images.)
Donald Trump issued a vague tweet on Monday that he would be “temporarily suspend[ing] immigration into the United States” by Executive Order that subsequently caught many administration officials, members of Congress and immigration restrictionists off guard. Both Democratic and Republican House and Senate leaders, confirmed that the first they were hearing about any impending restrictions on the immigration front was Trump’s tweet, which caused a commotion in many Congressional offices as many rushed to get more information about the plan on Tuesday.
By Tuesday afternoon, Trump explained more aspects of his new immigration halt during his coronavirus press conference, revealing that the new order would only apply to those seeking permanent residency. Trump also confirmed that the initial order will only be for a 60-day period, after which the administration will reevaluate whether to extend or modify the plan.
Trump did not provide any further details on whether there would be other exemptions at that time or how broad the program would be and if it would apply to work visas. He did however hint that order would be limited in some respects saying it would “apply to individuals seeking a permanent residency—in other words, those receiving green cards.”
A senior White House official acknowledged that White House aides had begun to discuss further curtailing immigration nearly two weeks ago and that Homeland Security officials had submitted a draft to the White House on the issue last Thursday. The official also confirmed that Trump had been briefed on the contents of all of the proposed plans. The only conclusion that can be drawn about Trump’s elusive delivery of these new limitations, is that the plan was intended to catch everyone off guard and the imprecise description of what the order would entail was intentional.
By Wednesday, Trump had confirmed to members of the press that he had indeed signed the Executive Order further limiting immigration, but was still cagey with the exact details. “I just signed an order temporarily suspending immigration into the United States,” Trump said, refusing to elaborate on its contents. “Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens, and crucially it also also preserves healthcare resources for our patients.” He went on to add, “Amending it or extending it, that we can do at the appropriate time, but it’s now signed.”
According to the text of the order, the new rule took effect on Thursday and the intention is to review it after 30 days. Additionally, there is a restriction of certain categories of immigrants from entrance into the United States for the next 60 days along with broad exceptions that make the actual order more limited than Trump alluded to all week in his statements.
The order will not apply to immigrants who are already living and working in the United States and are seeking to become legal permanent residents. Others who entered the United States, such as medical professionals, farmworkers and other temporary “nonimmigrant” visa entries will remain unaffected. This new, temporary suspension also exempts spouses and underage children of U.S. citizens.
The measure additionally halts the Diversity Visa Lottery, which issues about 50,000 green cards annually and has been a frequent target of the Trump administration in terms of attempts at restriction. Legal permanent residents who are trying to bring their spouses and children into the country will be unable to do so while this Executive Order remains in place.
The U.S. State Department issued about 462,000 immigrant visas last year, and more than half went to applicants in the categories that will be frozen now by Trump’s new limitations. It’s also important to note the Trump administration may not be finished with immigration restrictions at this point. A senior administration official told Reuters that the White House was considering a separate action that could deal with skilled workers who enter the country on H-1B visas and others affected by U.S. immigration policy.
Further immigration limitations would certainly appease immigration hardliners who were expecting this order to be more wide-ranging and include short-term work visas. The potential additional executive order would include exemptions for people involved in responding to the coronavirus outbreak, including farm workers and those helping to secure U.S. food supplies, according to the official.
Before the coronavirus pandemic emergency measures went into effect, Trump had already signed three executive orders in January that significantly threatened protections and rights for immigrants both in the United States and globally. On January 25, Trump signed executive orders on border security and interior enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security.
On January 27, he signed an executive order at the Pentagon further limiting refugee status and visa holders from designated nations. Trump issued an executive order in late January that barred entry to certain travelers from China, where the coronavirus first surfaced. He similarly blocked certain travelers from Iran in February and Europe in March and added Nigeria and five other countries to a list of countries subject to visa restrictions.
But what is perhaps most worrisome in this latest flurry of immigration restrictions is the fact that the Trump administration is already enforcing carve-out rules, that are not included in specific Executive Orders, that are financially affecting immigrants and their U.S. citizen family members. U.S. citizens, whose children are also U.S. citizens, are now being excluded from the government’s $2-trillion coronavirus financial relief package, that includes $1,200 individual stimulus payouts, if they file their taxes jointly with a spouse who is a non-U.S. citizen.
Regardless of their legal status and ability to remain in the United States at this time, any foreign national who is married to a U.S. citizen will create a default non-payment situation for the taxpayer who should be eligible for stimulus funding. More than one million U.S. citizens, in states ranging from California to Pennsylvania, have been blocked from receiving stimulus checks because they are married to immigrants who don’t have Social Security numbers.
This means that frontline workers who are employed in hospitals, police officers and public transit workers, who are all putting their lives at risk to help keep America moving during the pandemic, will be intentionally left out of the deserved federal payment. This Trump administration move will also affect others who have been laid off or are working fewer hours as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, who are in critical need of supplementary funding.
Considering that many are describing the recent actions of the president as much more limited than expected or not as harsh considering current limitations already in effect due to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s critical that we recognize that the Trump administration is continuing to enact ruthless policies that aren’t as obvious to the American public because they are not specified in these new Executive Orders.
It is not unlike this administration to create a flashy distraction, in this case the much publicized Executive Order that was flaunted all week, to obscure the smaller rules that are still being enforced that are cutting off many legal immigrants at the knees financially during this time. While this latest signed order does not go as far as one might expect from Stephen Miller and the Trump administration, you can be sure that there is much more to come.
With many of the harshest limitations occurring under the radar, like this stimulus limitation, these red-herring regulations seem to merely serve the greater purpose of obfuscating the truly damaging Trump policies— the ones that are being enforced right under our noses with very little fanfare.
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Amee Vanderpool writes the “Shero” Newsletter and is an attorney, contributor to magazines and newspapers and analyst for BBC radio. She can be reached at avanderpool@gmail.com or follow her on Twitter @girlsreallyrule.
1) Stephen Miller is fundamentally one of the move evil human beings to ever be associated with the White House.
2) White House: "This is an invisible enemy, so we must stop immigration!" Also the White House: "This virus is being defeated, and won't even be around soon! It's also a Democrat Hoax! Also, open the states up for business now!"
this is pure trumputin: throw out chaff to distract, watch the media and democrats and others chase it, and continue being an irresponsible lout AND doing truly nasty things like destroying EPA under cover of the distractions...he's stupid, uneducated, misogynist, racist ... and has perfected his method of creating chaos and getting his way behind it.