Trump to Order Partial Pause on Immigration

RALEIGH – When President Donald Trump announced he planned to sign an executive order limiting immigration during the height of the SARS-CoV2 epidemic, many on the Left again went apoplectic over his obvious racism. No, it matters little to them that all sorts of curbs on movement of people and goods has become the coronavirus custom the world over, because Trump — and especially his voting base — is purely motivated by racism.

No doubt Trump’s base is primarily motivated by racism. This is why Trump does this. Every. Damn. Time.

— Jennifer Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) April 21, 2020

Jennifer Rubin thinks is merely pulling red meat out for his base of racist voters. That’s what they like to think, and what they want anyone, not committed already, to consider that Trump supporters are really supporters of White Supremacy. This ridiculous and lazy charge, usually a marker of intellectual bankruptcy, is never going away, unfortunately.

So will this new order ban immigration? Not exactly. The order seems to be crafted to avoid disrupting important commercial sectors and allow for a lot during the 60 day pause.

From POLITICO:

“[…] Trump announced that he will sign an executive order blocking most people for 60 days from receiving a permanent residency visa, or green card. But the order will still allow the government to continue processing visas for hundreds of thousands of temporary employees, including farm workers, landscapers and crab pickers — the largest source of immigration.

The order is also expected to carve out additional exemptions for so-called essential employees, including health care workers, and immigrants who come into the United States through immediate family members, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Trump, who will sign the executive order as soon as Wednesday, said the measure will be reassessed in two months.

“It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrants, labor flown in from abroad,” Trump said at the daily White House briefing, nodding to the 22 million Americans who have filed for unemployment in recent weeks. “We must first take care of the American worker, take care of the American worker.” […]”

When the economy does open back up, it will not be like flipping a switch. Many businesses will have been permanently scarred, leaving them hesitant to overextend themselves, especially with payroll. That means they will come back on line leaner, with less workers, and move slower to add jobs back. They’ll look for cost-efficient ways to augment labor, which for many businesses could mean temporary employees with work visas are more attractive than alternatives.

What effect this will have on labor markets will be borne out over the next several months, but it may be negligible compared to our need to merely reopen the economy in the first place. Every day we remain under shutdown policies, is a day small-business owners are going under, eliminating for good their chances to hire employees back.