George W. Bush Center official says Trump coronavirus immigration ban won’t slow spread or save jobs

“Unfortunately, this executive order is not going to accomplish either of those objectives,” Laura Collins, the director of economic growth for the center, said in a video statement posted to Twitter. “First of all, the virus affects all of us equally. It doesn’t care who we are or where we’re from. Current travel restrictions and quarantine protocols in place protect us from viral spread regardless of where we’re from.”

Collins continued: “We know that, before the pandemic, there were millions of unfilled jobs in the United States. If we assume that, in any recovery, all of those jobs come back, every American that wants a job will have the ability to fill the jobs that were there.”

“We’re still going to have shortages, and we’re going to need immigrants there to help fill those jobs,” Collins said.

She also added in the video: “We know immigrants are good for the economy. We know they’re good for our culture.”

The dig at Trump’s immigration policies comes after Bush himself called for unity amid the national emergency, which has rocked the U.S. economy and resulted in the death of more than 20 times the number of people who died during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“We are not partisan combatants,” Bush said Saturday. “We cannot allow physical separation to become emotional isolation. This requires us to be not only compassionate but creative in our outreach, and people across the nation are using the tools of technology and the cause of solidarity.”

Trump responded to the comments on Twitter later that day.

“He was nowhere to be found in speaking up against the greatest Hoax in American history!” Trump said of Bush, in an apparent reference to the impeachment Trump faced at the beginning of the year.