President Trump Tweets that, to battle the coronavirus, he will sign “an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!”
We are approaching final examination season in law schools across the country (although we have never seen an academic year like this one). In toying with exam questions, immigration professors often look for good real world hypotheticals that test such things as limits of the plenary power doctrine and The Chinese Exclusion Case and the scope of Executive Branch power over immigration control. With his administration devoted to restricting immigration and bolstering immigration enforcement, President Trump just may give immigration law professors a wonderful exam question. Can the President stop all immigration in the midst of a pandemic that has crippled the U.S. economy?
CNN reports that President Donald Trump yesterday said that he might sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration to the United States as the nation battles the health and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
“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!” the President tweeted. The details of how the President might suspend immigration, how long a suspension could last, or what im,pact it might have on border crossings.
According to Brett Samuels on The Hill, “Democratic officials . . . accused Trump of using the pandemic as justification to cater to his base with the hardline immigration policy.”
“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,” tweeted Representative Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
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!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 21, 2020
KJ