Trump extends immigration restrictions, citing the impact of the pandemic on the labor market

Trump extends immigration restrictions, citing the impact of the pandemic on the labor market

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The continuation of the restrictions, which have only 20 days until the end of the president’s term, is the latest effort to block the entry of immigrants into the country. Restricting immigration has been a focus of the government since its early days, when it issued a travel ban in seven Muslim-majority countries, and continued in Trump’s final year in office while the White House uses the coronavirus pandemic as cover.
In April, Trump signed an immigration declaration targeting people outside the U.S. who were looking to legally migrate to the U.S., with a few exceptions. That order, which was due to expire, was extended in June until the end of 2020 and expanded to include some guest worker visas.

“The effects of COVID-19 on the United States labor market and the health of American communities are a matter of continuing national concern,” said Trump’s proclamation on Thursday. “The current number of new daily cases worldwide reported by the World Health Organization, for example, is greater than the comparable number present during June and, although drugs and vaccines have recently been available to an increasing number of Americans, their effects in the labor market and the health of the community has not yet been fully realized. “

Citing the continued impact of the pandemic on the labor market as the reason for the restrictions, it contradicts the refrain of the president’s campaign that the US was “getting around the pandemic” and its continuing rhetoric that the US did a great job in treating the coronavirus – even as the country continues to set new daily records of deaths and hospitalizations.

The message of the proclamation on economics is also contradictory for the president. In a video posted to his Twitter account on Thursday, in which the president praised the growth of the US economy, he boasted about the unemployment rate and said the number was “falling far below” the current 6.7% .

As CNN previously reported, one of the key figures behind the pressure to limit immigration was Stephen Miller, Trump’s top immigration advisor and the architect of the president’s hardline immigration agenda.

Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this story.

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