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We Need Immigrants, Not Fear and Division
Posted on Jun 24 2020
June 23, 2020—Yesterday’s Executive Order banning most legal immigration until 2021 is number 48 in a long list of immigration restrictions ordered by the Trump administration during the past five months. This administration has used the pandemic as a pretext for promulgating its anti-immigrant agenda. With this order, the president again scapegoats immigrants to distract attention from his administration’s failures during the pandemic.
“Families who have already waited years for reunification, now face continuing separation because of this order,” said Veena Iyer, executive director of the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. “For some, the cruelty of this ban will never end. Some parents of U.S. citizens and family members of permanent residents already have waited for years for visa numbers. Now that they are eligible to come to the United States, the door has slammed shut in their faces.”
Yesterday’s Executive Order also expands the April 22 order banning legal immigration by family members to bar temporary work visas for highly skilled workers and many other classes of non-immigrant visas.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said it well: “Putting up a ‘not welcome’ sign for engineers, executives, IT experts, doctors, nurses and other workers won’t help our country, it will hold us back. Restrictive changes to our nation’s immigration system will push investment and economic activity abroad, slow growth, and reduce job creation.”
This order does nothing to battle the pandemic or the economic downturn it caused. Instead, it keeps families separated, further damages the U.S. economy, and panders to fear.
Blame and division do nothing to keep anyone safe or protect jobs. Racism and xenophobia have no place in the battle for the health and lives of our community.