Just like sending troops to the American border right before the 2018 elections, Trump& #39;s order banning immigration is an obvious political play that both offers no meaningful help on problems it purports to solve and actually makes the situation worse. Consider:
1) The rationale provided in the tweet is protecting jobs. But immigration (and in particular, migration of temporary workers) naturally decreases during recessions anyhow. As Doug Massey documents here: https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/Immigration_fact_sheet.pdf">https://inequality.stanford.edu/sites/def...
... The Great Recession saw a sharp decline of temporary workers and undocumented immigrants. People aren& #39;t trying to get jobs in the US when there& #39;s not demand for employment.
2) This makes the situation worse. As @nicolenarea writes here, we are seeing shortages of medical workers in acute areas, but that need could be met by foreign born doctors and nurses. https://www.vox.com/2020/3/30/21190971/foreign-immigrant-">https://www.vox.com/2020/3/30...
Rather than restricting immigration, we should be setting up specialized streamlined visa processes to encourage immigrants with medical skills to come here.
3) The food supply chain -- including farm workers and meat packing plants -- relies heavily on immigrant labor, including temporary seasonal workers who come here on H-2A visas.
We& #39;re already seeing risks to that supply chain, so much so that that DHS has declared farmworkers essential https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/0...
So much so, in fact, that DHS actually *streamlined* the H-2A process to make it easier for prior H-2A visa holders to work this year: https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/breaking-agency-temporarily-amends-h-2a-rules-during-coronavirus-crisis/
What">https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/brea... this tweet from Trump does to that is anyone& #39;s guess.
What">https://vegetablegrowersnews.com/news/brea... this tweet from Trump does to that is anyone& #39;s guess.