After announcing that he will suspend all immigration to the US because of coronavirus this week, President Donald Trump seems to have relaxed his stance by saying he will freeze the applications of foreign nationals seeking green cards which would guarantee them permanent residence in the country.
Speaking at Tuesday’s White House coronavirus briefing, Trump said that an executive order implementing the 60-day suspension could be finalised on Wednesday.
The president added that the ban could be extended for a “much longer” period depending on the performance of the US economy.
It is thought that Trump has changed position on the issue after concerns were aired by industry chiefs over a full immigration ban, due to the impact it would have on immigrants with temporary working visas in numerous sectors.
Many US visa services are already under suspension as a result of the ongoing pandemic.
Trump informed the media that the move to freeze green card applications would help protect American jobs, after over 20 million American citizens applied for unemployment support.
Saying that his government had a "solemn duty" to ensure people affected return to employment, Trump said: “It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labour flown in from abroad. We want to protect our US workers and I think as we move forward, we will become more and more protective of them".
It is possible that there will be a legal challenge to Trump’s plan, while Democrats have lashed out at the announcement, saying that the president is using the pandemic to tackle immigration and draw attention away from his response to the outbreak.
Trump has delegated the task of leading the US response to the crisis to vice-president, Mike Pence. The US has 820,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases, with 44,241 deaths recorded by Tuesday night, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
