U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order suspending legal immigration to the US, for 60 days.
What is the proposed rationale?
It comes as a move to protect jobs during the coronavirus crisis.
This will ensure that unemployed Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as the economy reopens.
The suspension hits people applying for permanent residency, or green cards, for 60 days.
Who are exempted?
The order is not expected to halt visa processing for many thousands of temporary employees.
This potentially includes a sizeable number of Indian nationals in the H-1B skilled worker category.
It also includes seasonal workers in areas like landscaping, agribusinesses, and service jobs in hospitality, who fall into the H-2B category.
Seasonal workers, such as immigrants vital to US farm labour, are still allowed to enter.
The order will also likely carve out exemptions for certain categories of essential workers.
These include the health care workers, those playing a critical role in fighting the pandemic, and those who seek to immigrate via their immediate relatives.
What are the concerns?
Immigrant and non-immigrant travelling into the U.S. has anyway fallen considerably, due to the rising coronavirus cases and deaths.
Given this, what impact would the policy have on the job market is uncertain.
Approximately 22 million Americans have filed for unemployment in recent weeks in the U.S.
This is more due to the cessation of business activity post the pandemic and not much due to immigration.
Besides all, Trump has a little more than 6 months left to govern through his first term in office.
So, his immigration policy is more a campaign point than a response to the impact of the Coronavirus.
It comes as a move in regards with his core constituent base of blue-collar workers.
In this case, Trump's strident policy rhetoric on immigration will widen the deep divisions in American society in the months ahead.
