Trump Offers More Details on Immigration 'Pause'

President Trump offered more details Tuesday on his decision to suspend immigration "in light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy." During his daily coronavirus briefing, the president said green card recipients would be blocked from moving to the US for 60 days, the Washington Post reports. He argued that the move would protect American jobs, saying: "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrants labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American worker." Trump said the measure, which he first announced in a tweet Monday night, is still being written but he will probably sign it Wednesday.

Trump told reporters that the move will be reassessed based on "economic conditions" in 60 days. Insiders tell Politico that there will be major exceptions to the "pause" on immigration, including essential workers like nurses. Trump told reporters that seasonal farm workers would be unaffected. Analysts including Harvard Business School professor William Kerr warn that keeping out high-skilled immigrants will hinder, not help the economy's recovery from the pandemic. "To think that shutting down all immigration into the country is the right strategy is quite foolish," Kerr tells the Post. "It is not one that is economically sound and certainly is not motivated by containing the crisis itself. It's more of an effort to cast suspicion and blame toward immigrant groups." (More immigration stories.)