Donald Trump announced Monday that he plans to ban immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The president tweeted: ‘In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!’
At least 22 million Americans are now out of work as tough measures to control the coronavirus outbreak wiped out 13.5 percent of the workforce and 10 years of job growth.
In an address to the nation last month Trump announced a drastic ban on foreigners traveling to the United States from Europe. He had already banned travel from China as the COVID-19 outbreak was spreading from the city of Wuhan.
Exact details of this latest order were not immediately clear but migrant farm workers and medics are thought to be exempt, The Wall Street Journal reports.
It was also pointed out on Twitter that the U.S.-Canada border is already closed, most visa applications are on hold and the administration essentially shut down the nation’s asylum system last month.
The White House has not commented on Trump’s latest tweet but the order is likely to face legal challenges.
Trump’s tweet came as the U.S. death toll from the virus topped 42, 000. The United States has by far the world’s largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases, with more than 779,000 infections, up 20,000 on Monday.
NBC News White House Correspondent Geoff Bennett tweeted: ‘Immigration was already functionally shut down. The WH had closed the U.S.-Canada border and started deporting asylum-seekers without due process.
‘International air travel has largely been suspended. Formalizing it serves as a simple way for Trump to rile up his base.’
Buzzfeed reporter Hamed Aleaziz added: ‘Note also that the State Department had already suspended routine visa services at all US embassies and consulates.’
Texas congressman Joaquin Castro called Trump’s announcement ‘an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis’.
He tweeted: ‘This action is not only an attempt to divert attention away from Trump’s failure to stop the spread of the coronavirus and save lives, but an authoritarian-like move to take advantage of a crisis and advance his anti-immigrant agenda.
‘We must come together to reject his division.
The president has taken credit for his restrictions on travel to the U.S. from China and hard-hit European countries, arguing it contributed to slowing the spread of the virus in the U.S.
During his Monday briefing Trump talked about his supporters and then pointed to his initial action on the coronavirus, a late-January travel ban from China, which excluded American citizens.
‘And yet in January, a certain date – you know the date better than I do – we put on a ban of China, where China can’t come in and before March we put on a ban of Europe, where Europe can’t come in,’ Trump said.
Sources told The New York Times the formal order banning new green cards and work visas could be implemented in days, shutting down legal immigration.
Trump’s tweet came hours after the price of U.S. oil traded below $0 for the first time ever.
And there were 5.2 million new claims for unemployment benefits filed last week, according to the latest Labor Department figures released on Thursday.
The staggering number of first-time claims was on top of the 16.8 million applications filed since the virus took hold in mid-March.
Economists say the unemployment rate could reach as high as 20 percent in April, which would be the highest rate since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While accurate records didn’t begin until 1948, economists say the unemployment rate rose to 25 percent in 1933.
