Trump immigration proclamation a cynical political stunt

As the nation grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration has rolled out a new immigration measure. Last Wednesday, the president signed a proclamation restricting some immigrants from entering the U.S. for 60 days. Trump said that the order, which went into effect Thursday, was necessary to protect jobs at a time of high unemployment. “Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens,” he said, “and crucially it also preserves healthcare resources for our patients.”

Trump’s latest immigration move is little more than a calculated political stunt. It is designed to stoke anti-immigrant sentiment and to distract the public from the administration’s myriad failures in dealing with the coronavirus crisis. It hurts potential legal immigrants, and benefits no one — except perhaps the president. 

Trump’s proclamation, which he initially tweeted would “suspend immigration” to the U.S., came with broad exemptions for several categories of foreign workers and employees. The primary effect of the order is that immigrants living abroad won’t be issued green cards — the main route to obtaining U.S. citizenship — for two months unless they are coming to the U.S. to perform an essential health care job. The Migration Policy Institute estimates that the order would block about 26,000 potential green-card holders a month, or roughly 52,000 over the 60-day period. These numbers would rise if the order were to be extended; last year, nearly half of the 460,000 immigrant visas issued by the State Department were in the categories that the order suspends.

Yet the people being blocked from obtaining green cards are people overseas who have been “playing by the rules” and “waiting in line.” They are the spouses and children of legal permanent residents, the siblings and parents of U.S. citizens, and aspiring lawful immigrants seeking green cards for work. Trump’s order adds to their wait times and uncertainty after they have gone through the long process of being vetted and deemed qualified for permanent residency.

In addition, the proclamation promotes inequity in our immigration system. It suspends the diversity visa lottery, which gives people all over the world a shot at obtaining a green card, while leaving special visas for wealthy investors intact.

Trump is pausing some immigration at a time when his administration has significantly halted entries into the country already. In March, the State Department suspended routine visa processing abroad. Our borders with Canada and Mexico are closed to nonessential travel. Restrictions on travel from China and Europe remain in place. Given these realities, why is the president further restricting immigration?

That’s easy. The U.S. economy is cratering, with entire industries virtually shut down and unemployment at record levels. A majority of Americans (54 percent) gave Trump negative marks for his handling of the public health crisis, according to a Washington Post poll. The administration has yet to formulate a coherent national strategy to deal with the outbreak. So the president needs to distract attention away from his administration’s lack of preparation for this pandemic, and he is reaching for his favorite lifeline: scapegoating immigrants.

Trump’s proclamation won’t make Americans safer nor do anything about illegal immigration. It doesn’t solve any economic problems, as research shows that immigration has a positive net effect on U.S. workers and wages. Instead, the order makes clear that Trump is not above using a deadly pandemic for political gain. And though the order is supposed to be temporary, news outlets reported on Friday that senior White House advisor Stephen Miller sees the measure as part of his long-term vision for curbing immigration overall.

Any leader confronted with a public health crisis would naturally be expected to take decisive action, but Trump’s proclamation is a political move that amounts to pandemic theater.

This is unacceptable at a time when much of the country remains on lockdown and the national death toll from coronavirus has topped 50,000. It is also troubling that Trump’s proclamation represents a potential restructuring of immigration law without congressional input. Not only is this constitutionally suspect, according to legal experts, it moves the U.S. away from an immigration system centered on family unity. Consider that in 2018, the Senate rejected a proposal that tracks closely with the policy changes outlined in Trump’s order. It failed to garner majority support, even in the Republican-controlled senate.

Trump’s move to restrict legal immigration is cynical and divisive. Legal immigrants are not to blame for the economic consequences of the coronavirus — and immigration policy should not be made by presidential proclamation.

Raul A. Reyes is an immigration attorney and member of the USA Today Board of Contributors.  A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia Law School, he is also a contributor to NBCNews.com and CNN Opinion. You can follow him on Twitter at @RaulAReyes, Instagram: raulareyes1.