Tag: Trump immigration policy

Before Covid-19, Trump Aide Sought to Use Disease to Close Borders

New York Times logoThe president’s chief adviser on immigration, Stephen Miller, had long tried to halt migration based on public health, without success. Then came the coronavirus.

From the early days of the Trump administration, Stephen Miller, the president’s chief adviser on immigration, has repeatedly tried to use an obscure law designed to protect the nation from diseases overseas as a way to tighten the borders.

The question was, which disease?

Mr. Miller pushed for invoking the president’s broad public health powers in 2019, when an outbreak of mumps spread through immigration detention facilities in six states. He tried again that year when Border Patrol stations were hit with the flu. Continue reading.

Trump’s Immigration Ban Literally Harms Our Health

Over the past three years, I have spent a lot of time in hospitals supporting close relatives with serious medical conditions. I’ve been there many mornings, afternoons and evenings, interacting with doctors, nurses and other personnel. And I often wonder: Where would hospital patients be without immigrants?

Many of the people on the front lines of the battle against the coronavirus came here from other countries. A 2018 study found that 29 percent of physicians were born abroad and seven percent are not U.S. citizens. For registered nurses, the figures are 16 percent and three percent. There is no telling how many hospital kitchen workers, IT staff and maintenance employees — all crucial to operations — are also foreign-born.

If you find yourself in the hospital with COVID-19, chances are very good that you’ll get care and help from immigrants. You may end up owing your life to one. Some of them have died of the disease. Continue reading.

Stephen Miller has long-term vision for Trump’s ‘temporary’ immigration order, according to private call with supporters

Washington Post logoTrump senior policy adviser Stephen Miller told White House supporters in a private call this week that the president’s new executive order curbing immigration will usher in the kind of broader long-term changes to American society he has advocated for years, even though the 60-day measures were publicly characterized as a “pause” during the coronavirus pandemic.

Miller, the chief architect of the president’s immigration agenda and one of his longest-serving and most trusted advisers, spoke to a group of Trump surrogates Thursday in an off-the-record call about the new executive order, which had been signed the night before. Although the White House had seen the move as something that would resonate with Trump’s political base, the administration instead was facing criticism from immigration hard-liners who were disappointed that the order does not apply to temporary foreign workers despite Trump pitching it as helping to protect jobs for Americans.

Miller told the group that subsequent measures were under consideration that would restrict guest worker programs, but the “the most important thing is to turn off the faucet of new immigrant labor,” he said, according to a recording obtained by The Washington Post. Miller indicated that the strategy is part of a long-term vision and not seen only as a stopgap. Continue reading.

Melania Trump’s immigration lawyer slams president’s ’embarrassing’ response to COVID-19 pandemic

AlterNet logoMelania Trump’s immigration attorney blasted the president’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Wildes — who helped secure U.S. citizenship for the first lady and her parents Viktor and Amalija Knavs, as well as a green card for her sister Ines — questioned President Donald Trump’s immigration ban in response to the pandemic, reported The Daily Mail.

“Embarrassing, embarrassing, I think it’s embarrassing,” Wildes said. “But I think we have to not criticize, we have to step up and all hands on deck are needed, whether it’s the medical professionals in our hospitals and our first responders in people’s homes.” Continue reading.

Trump seizes on economic crisis to push green card ban

The Hill logoPresident Trump is seizing on the coronavirus pandemic to engineer an immigration ban that he’s sought for years, framing it as a step to protect domestic jobs and public health amid waves of new unemployment claims.

The move is red meat for his die-hard supporters and has the potential to rally his conservative base ahead of his tough reelection bid this fall.

Yet it’s also opened up the president to attacks from Democrats, now accusing the White House of trying to shift public attention away from his unsteady response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 45,000 people, sickened 825,000 and shuttered the U.S. economy.  Continue reading.

U.S. is deporting infected migrants back to vulnerable countries

Washington Post logoThey arrive 24 hours a day in the Mexican border city of Reynosa, groups of men, women and children deported by the United States. Each time, at the edge of the international bridge, Ricardo Calderón Macias and his team get ready.

They put on masks and gloves. They prepare their thermometers and health forms. They wonder, sometimes aloud: Will anyone in this group test positive?

“We’re worried that eventually, with these deportations, we’re all going to get infected,” said Calderón, the regional director of the Tamaulipas state immigration institute. Continue reading.

Trump’s executive order to stop issuing green cards temporarily, explained

Trump has already restricted immigration during the coronavirus pandemic. Now he wants to go a step further.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday night that he will sign an executive order temporarily suspending the issuance of green cards, saying it’s needed to protect American jobs amid an unemployment crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier drafts of the executive order would have also suspended the issuance of new visas. But the New York Times reported that Trump ultimately decided against doing so after pushback from business groups that rely on foreign workers, particularly in the tech sector.

Under the executive order, American citizens will still be able to apply for green cards on behalf of their children and spouses, according to the Times. But the families of existing green card holders and those applying for green cards through their employer will not be able to do so for a period of 60 days. Roughly 577,000 immigrants were granted green cards between October 2018 and October 2019. Continue reading.

ICE’s COVID-19 test figures hint at health crisis in detention

Agency tested more than 300 detainees for virus. Results for more than one-third came back positive.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has tested more than 300 detainees for the COVID-19 virus and 124 of them were positive, or more than one-third, CQ Roll Call learned Friday, raising concern among immigration advocates that the actual number of ill detainees held by the agency is far greater.

ICE, which currently has 32,000 people in custody, confirmed that tests have been given to more than 300 detainees. However, at least two other sources briefed on the agency’s COVID-19 operations quoted a range from 191 to 372 when asked by CQ Roll Call about test numbers.

ICE’s public tally on its website Friday said the total number of COVID-19 positive detainees was 105, and that 25 detention staff and 81 employees not assigned to detention facilities have also tested positive. But on Friday evening, ICE informed congressional staff that 19 additional detainees had tested positive. Once a detainee tests positive, everyone in contact with the person is isolated together in their living spaces and on lockdown for most of the day, ICE has previously said.

Supreme Court allows Trump’s full “Remain in Mexico” program to continue

Axios logoThe Supreme Court gave the Trump administration another immigration win on Wednesday, blocking a federal injunction that would have halted the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — or “Remain in Mexico” policy — in California and Arizona.

Why it matters: The Trump administration sent military troops to parts of the border ahead of the decision in order to prepare for any surges of migrants crossing the border if MPP was halted, per the New York Times.

The big picture: The policy has kept tens of thousands of asylum-seekers on Mexican soil to wait out their immigration court hearings. The program has been credited for helping lower the border crossing numbers from crisis levels. Continue reading.

US sends 160 troops to border over ‘Remain in Mexico’ ruling

Those deployed at California, Texas ports will support CBP officers, not conduct immigration enforcement, agency says

Customs and Border Protection announced Friday that 160 active-duty troops will be deployed to two southern ports of entry in response to recent court rulings over the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy and the potential threat of the coronavirus.

The agency said 80 troops will be deployed to the Paso del Norte Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas, and another 80 troops to a port of entry outside of San Diego in San Ysidro, California, senior CBP officials told CQ Roll Call.

The troops “will provide military police support, engineer, and aviation support” to CBP officers processing migrants, according to an agency spokesperson. Continue reading.