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Re: Trump's forthcoming Exec Order to "temporarily suspend" immigration to the US, today's NYT said, "Mr. Trump’s primary focus appears to be on protecting American workers as the virus ravages what had been a rapidly growing job market." That is wrong. https://tinyurl.com/y8yk63my 1/
That claim may be Trump's talking point, but it flies in the face of the actions that would actually make the US safer & stronger. His move is to deflect his negligence in handling the virus crisis by scapegoating his favorite boogeyman, immigrants. 2/
As Covid19 has ravaged the US, w/ more than 42,897 deaths it is often immigrants on the front lines of the fight. Immigrant doctors constitute a significant force in hospitals and clinics now are worried about their visa status. https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-04-06/foreign-doctors-on-u-s-frontlines-of-covid-19-fear-deportation 3/
The US faces a current shortage of medical personnel with medical facilities understaffed & overwhelmed as US staff are sickened by the virus and get go to work. The AMA asked the Administration for more foreign doctors to help. https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/node/1399314/ 4/
This article notes that, "The US health system already relies heavily on immigrants, who make up 17 percent of all health care workers and more than one in four doctors." https://www.vox.com/2020/3/30/21190971/foreign-immigrant-doctor-nurse-coronavirus 5/
Presumably foreign medical personnel would be deemed "essential" and not be subject to the Executive Order, but reports of red tape and visa applications processing slowed to a crawl means that foreign doctors and nurses who are in the US are not only worrying abt the virus--6/
but also their visa status. Meanwhile, foreign doctors and nurses are stuck in immigration visa limbo, ensnared by the bureaucracy and unable to enter the US to help, as this article reports. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/us/coronavirus-foreign-doctors-nurses-visas.html 7/
Meanwhile, our nation's agricultural workers, many who are undocumented, find themselves in the strange position to be declared essential workers but also "illegal" as they are ordered to continue to work even as the rest of us shelter in place. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/us/coronavirus-undocumented-immigrant-farmworkers-agriculture.html 8/
