A Patriot Lawyer Says Trump's Moratorium Order Needs To Be Full-Strength, Not Watered-Down
04/23/2020
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Re: Peter Brimelow's article Trump Has Put An Immigration Moratorium "In Play." Not Enough—But Something

From: Fabrizo Evola [Email him]

Like many in the Dissident Right, I was rather elated to hear that President Trump was going to impose an immigration moratorium by issuing an executive order. While I think this is welcome news, there is a good chance that this executive order will be significantly watered down. There is already some discussion about exempting certain farmworkers under the H-2A program. See Trump's Surprise Immigration Ban Expected To Include Major Exemption,by Anita Kumar, Liz Crampton And Matthew Choi, POLITICO, April 21, 2020.

My other concern is that there is a major distinction under immigration law between non-immigrant visas and immigrant visas. For instance, F visas (student visas) and H visas (work visas), are considered non-immigrant visas. The entire point of this supposed immigration moratorium is to ensure that Americans get the first opportunity to secure employment as the economy begins to recover once the pandemic is over. If, however, there is a never ending stream of student and work visas, that would end up undercutting the purpose of this executive order. Americans would still be forced to compete against a large supply of foreign labor.

In this scenario, an immigration moratorium would result in little more than a lull in the amount of legal permanent residency cards (immigrant visas) that are issued. Once the pandemic has abated, there would still be a very large pool of foreigners in the country who could then apply to adjust their status to permanent residency—and then eventually to citizenship.

For this immigration moratorium to be truly effective it has to include a moratorium on the vast majority of non-immigrant visas as well. I understand that there are going to be some exceptions for diplomatic visas and the like, but the Trump Administration needs to ensure that the supply of seemingly endless Third World labor is stopped with this executive action.

Ultimately, the details of this executive order matter, and we need to be vigilant that this is real reform and not just empty rhetoric to excite his base.

See earlier letters from the same reader.

James Fulford writes: The first thing I said when I heard he Tweeted this is that backstabbing White House types like the "advisers" who wouldn't let him put troops on the border would try to water it down and hide Trump's pen. Breitbart reports that the original order was stronger than it is now, and we may still see something like a moratorium from Trump yet. The sad thing is that there are no rallies to allow Trump to hear how loudly Americans would cheer an immigration halt.

 

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