That Immigration Moratorium? President Trump Effectively Reversed Course

  |  
Apr 23, 2020

Although President Donald Trump announced on April 20, 2020 that he would be halting all immigration to the U.S., there are now doubts that he will actually follow through with a moratorium policy that has actual teeth.

Mark Krikorian, the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies, tweeted “Trump now denying he ever wanted to reduce legal immigration.”

Krikorian was referring to the new Executive Order that Trump issued and the follow up discussions that ended up revealing that it has very little teeth.

Conservative host Tucker Carlson was also critical of the news that revealed the flaccidness of the executive order.

The Columbia Bugle tweeted about some of Tucker’s comments:

Must Watch @TuckerCarlson Monologue: Trump’s EO Fails To Protect American Jobs “There is only one point in handing out hundreds of thousands of these visas to foreign nationals & it is to placate big business.” “If the point of this EO was to protect American jobs it failed.”

U.S. Tech Workers, an immigration restriction advocacy group that protects the interests of American tech workers displaced by mass migration, tweeted,“The do-nothing immigration moratorium: – Temporary visa workers (H-1B, OPT, J-1, L-1, H-2B, etc.) won’t be suspended. – New green card issuances put on hold. – EO applicable for 60-days only, & may extend based on economic conditions.”

 

John Binder of Breitbart News noted that “President Trump revealed on Tuesday that his executive order pausing most legal immigration in the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis will not keep farmers from fast-tracking foreign workers into the country.”

Trump revealed that his executive order to stop immigration to the U.S. will have exemptions for foreign workers entering the country via the H-2A visa program. As Binder points out, the H-2A visa program “delivers an endless flow of cheap labor to farmers.”

“The farmers will not be affected,” Trump stated.

Binder covered how the Trump administration will handle the agricultural situation:

Trump said his administration is actually making the process easier for farmers to more quickly get H-2A foreign visa workers into the U.S. — referring to the State and Agriculture Departments’ orders to waive visa requirements and allow visa-holders to stay in the country for more than three years.

“No, the farmers will not be affected by this at all,” Trump stated. “If anything, we’re going to make it easier, and we’re doing a process for those workers to come in to go to the farm where they’ve been for a long time.”

Trump did concede that an immigration pause is necessary in order to protect the 22 million or so unemployed Americans from having to compete with cheap labor.

“I want our citizens to get jobs. I don’t want them to have competition,” Trump stated. “I want the American worker and our American citizens to be able to get jobs. I don’t want them to compete right now.”

Binder provided a breakdown of some of the numbers regarding H-2A visas:

The H-2A program allows American farms to import a limitless number of foreign workers and pay them below-average U.S. wages. American farms do not wholly rely on H-2A foreign visa workers to fill agricultural jobs, as the foreign workers make up only about ten percent of the total U.S. crop farm workforce. Last year, U.S. farmers hired roughly 250,000 H-2A foreign visa workers.

The Breitbart immigration policy reported continued noting the wage discrepancies:

In 2017, H-2A foreign visa workers picking crops were paid about two percent less than their American counterparts. Likewise, foreign visa workers operating agricultural equipment were paid 23 percent less than the national average U.S. wage. The largest wage discrepancy comes with H-2A foreign visa workers who take jobs as first-line supervisors for farming and fishing. They are paid about 95 percent less than their American counterparts.

Our Latest Articles