PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 24, 2020 – TRUMP‘S NEW EXECUTIVE ORDER – On Wednesday, April 23rd, President Donald Trump signed and announced a new Executive Order (EO) temporarily banning (for 60 days), from entry into the US, those who are outside and who do not have a valid “immigrant” visa.
In other words, the EO covers those who are outside the United States waiting for a green card through a local US consulate office. However, there are certain exceptions or “carveouts”, to this ban.
For example, the ban does not cover spouses of US citizens and children below the age of 21 (immediate relatives). The ban was aimed at “chain migration” as stated by Trump in his EO announcement.
Most troubling about the new EO are two vaguely drafted provisions that leave the door open to the possibility for an extension of the ban as well as a provision that permits additional steps to be taken by the secretary of state and the secretary of labor with regard to additional ways in which the US labor market can be protected due to the COVID-19 impact on the US economy.
The EO states it’s underpinnings succinctly as follows: “There is no way to protect already disadvantaged and unemployed Americans from the threat of competition for scarce jobs from new lawful permanent residents by directing those new residents to particular economic factors with a demonstrated need not met by the existing labor supply”.
David Nachman, Esq., the Managing Attorney at NPZ Law Group, P.C. states: “ The executive order appears merely to be campaign rhetoric but leaves open the opportunity to address potential review of nonimmigrant visa work programs in the US and for additional steps to be taken by the Trump Administration to stimulate the US economy and to ensure the prioritization, hiring and employment of US workers”.
While it is likely that this EO will be met with litigation on multiple fronts, the practical aspect of such litigation is that it will be rapidly mooted because the EO is only scheduled to last for 60 days.
The NPZ Law Group is US and Canadian immigration law office located in NJ, NY (with affiliated offices in Canada and India). The immigration attorneys and immigration specialist staff at the NPZ!continue to monitor emerging developments in US and Canadian immigration law as the COVID-19 pandemic emergency continues to change the way immigration law will be practiced in the 21st-century.