Late yesterday, the White House released a proclamation, “Suspending Entry of Immigrants Who Present Risk to the U.S. Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the COVID-19 Outbreak.”
The Washington Post’s Nick Miroff, Maria Sacchetti and Arelis R. Hernández report that the measure, which bars certain immigrants for at least 60 days, “contains broad exceptions” but will “put a halt on employment-based immigration visas as well as the family-based categories for parents and siblings.”
The proclamation halts the Diversity Visa Lottery, and legal permanent residents will be unable to bring their spouses and children into the country.
Our friends at the Migration Policy Institute estimate that the proclamation would block about 26,000 green cards monthly, or 52,000 over the 60-day period. And the good people of Boundless Immigration write that “[out] of the 1.1 million green cards that the United States typically issues each year, some 358,000 would not be approved as long as this proclamation is in effect.”
Fox News analyst Howard Kurtz writes, “By moving to freeze legal immigration — and saying he’s doing it to protect American jobs — Trump is taking another dramatic step toward a base-first strategy to energize his supporters.”
Our take is that the proclamation is another step towards severely curtailing legal immigration to the United States. Instead of solving our economic problems, the White House would rather sow division by promoting a view that immigrants should be viewed as competitors. In the end, this will undermine the trust we have in immigrants on the frontlines of the response — and will make it harder for the nation to come together to recover from COVID-19.
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
VISAS DOWN – Data from the State Department show that new visa issuances were down 35% in March from the previous month, reports Rafael Bernal in The Hill. “The drop was partly due to the closure of consular appointments — a requirement to obtain a visa — but that closure did not come until March 20. … The drop in visa issuances to Chinese nationals was especially precipitous, following travel restrictions imposed by Trump on Chinese nationals on Jan. 31.”
PANIC AND ANGER – President Trump’s ban on new green cards has caused “panic and anger” amongst the Indian immigrant community in the U.S., report Kai Schultz and Sameer Yasir for The New York Times. “Further immigration restrictions could have particularly acute consequences for India, which sends thousands of highly skilled workers to the United States every year and counts a four million strong diaspora in the country, representing one of the largest contingents of immigrants to the United States. … Most of the 800,000 immigrants currently waiting for a green card are Indian citizens.” And this is important: “Mr. Trump left open the possibility of extending the ban on new green cards “based on economic conditions at the time.’”
NO PAROLE – Despite increasing reports of COVID-19 spreading in immigration detention centers, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is continuing to deny parole to credible asylum seekers being held in federal custody. Per Camilo Montoya-Galvez for CBS News, “In a briefing last Friday, acting ICE Director Matthew Albence repeatedly told lawmakers on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform that a review of potentially vulnerable detainees had ended and there are no plans to expand the categories of immigrants who could be freed beyond older immigrants, pregnant women and those with certain medical conditions. … In a recent email reviewed by CBS News, an ICE official also said the agency is not releasing ‘cases that have appeals pending’ or ‘detainees for COVID-19 without significant medical documentation.’”
LEGAL ACTION – Following Trump’s proclamation, New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced that she was “standing ready to take legal action” against the administration, reports Daniel Villarreal at Newsweek. “This proclamation is antithetical to everything we believe as Americans. Immigrants are working essential jobs on the frontlines of this crisis helping to keep our nation and economy moving forward,” James said in a statement.
CROWDSOURCING – D.C. resident Brandon Wu has launched a GoFundMe campaign for local undocumented immigrants who are suffering financially and are not eligible for a stimulus check under the CARES Act, reports Theresa Vargas at The Washington Post. The campaign makes an appeal “asking those who can to contribute their entire stimulus check to immigrants in the Washington, D.C. metro area who were purposefully left out of the government’s response to covid-19.” As of Wednesday, Wu’s campaign “had raised more than $337,000, with at least 80 people giving more than $1,000.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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