President Trump signaled this week that he plans to go on the offensive on immigration in his reelection campaign, actively proposing to curtail new entries into the country on the grounds that it will benefit American workers during the coronavirus outbreak — while painting Democrats as soft on the issue.
Trump’s controversial executive order halting green cards for 60 days has alternately been derided as a loophole-ridden sop to immigration hawks or denounced as a blanket ban on immigrants that violates basic American values. But it does showcase a return to at least the rhetoric of reducing immigration in order to tighten labor markets and raise working-class wages that some supporters feared the White House had abandoned, with the exception of a few outliers like senior adviser Stephen Miller.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” Trump tweeted on Monday night. Shortly thereafter, new White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany began tweeting about the effects of large-scale immigration on the earnings prospects of lower-skilled workers.
“FLASHBACK: Senator Bernie Sanders used to care about the American workers harmed by mass immigration,” McEnany wrote in response to a tweet by the vanquished Democratic presidential candidate accusing Trump of “vilifying immigrants” and “xenophobia and racism.” She unearthed past Sanders quotes criticizing open borders — a position he deemphasized after being criticized from the Left on immigration in 2016 — as well as similar remarks by Barack Obama and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman.
“Immigration policy will be a huge part of the November election because Democrats have redefined themselves as a party unwilling to concede even the most basic public interest in proper immigration controls,” said Dan Stein, president of the restrictionist Federation for American Immigration Reform. “Doubling down on where Obama took them in his second term, Democrats are repeating the mistakes Clinton made in 2016 — placing a bet on the future flow over the welfare of the folks here today. President Trump’s flawless political instincts enable him to understand how to underscore the most extreme elements of the Democrat agenda and take them downtown.”
Immigration was among the issues added to son-in-law and top aide Jared Kushner’s portfolio, disheartening Trump backers who had hoped for lower immigration levels. Kushner has kept restrictionist groups who favor such policies at arm’s length, according to sources close to the White House, even as he has sought to rally Republicans behind legislation that would shift criteria for new immigrants away from family reunification and toward job skills.
“Jared is not exactly an America First, nationalist guy,” said a Trump-friendly immigration activist, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “But he is part of the president’s family.”
Trump has consistently taken a hard line on illegal immigration, but he has equivocated about increasing or reducing the number of legal immigrants admitted each year. Trump’s campaign immigration plan included restrictionist proposals by Miller and Jeff Sessions, since fired as attorney general and spurned by the president in his attempt to return to the Senate. As president, Trump endorsed a Republican bill that would decrease immigration. But he later called for more immigration.
“Legal immigrants enrich our nation and strengthen our society in countless ways,” Trump said in his 2019 State of the Union. “I want people to come into our country in the largest numbers ever, but they have to come in legally.” The phrase “largest numbers ever” did not appear in the original text and was ad-libbed by the president. Kushner’s subsequent proposal attempted to prioritize skills-based immigration without cutting the total number of immigrants accepted.
Trump was already touting border wall progress and reductions in illegal border crossings as he attacked presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden as weak on immigration. But immigration hawks say Trump hasn’t gone far enough. “Leaving out, or exempting, guest workers undercuts the rationale for the ‘pandemic pause’ in immigration,” Stein said.
“The president is worried about preserving American jobs,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a commentator who has Trump’s ear, said on his Tuesday show. “Unfortunately, and this seems to be the key, some in his orbit are not as concerned. Their main worry is making donors happy. And if there’s one thing that donors love always, it’s cheap employees.”
The next evening, the White House released a statement saying the administration would “review guest worker programs to assess whether additional measures should be taken to protect American workers.”
