During his election campaign, the President of the United States of America presented all the changes he wanted to make for immigration. But many changes were made.
Speech of Donald Trump in 2016
In a speech given by Donald Trump in 2016, he mentioned various changes regarding American immigration. Many questions were raised about the situation of immigrants in the United States.
- Undocumented immigrants
The President of the United States wanted to expel 11 million undocumented immigrants from the United States. A figure that shocked many. Later he said he had changed his speech and reduced the number to 2 to 3 million undocumented immigrants with a criminal record. This seemed to be in line with the administration’s priorities.
Deporting large numbers of undocumented immigrants to the United States requires incredible amounts of new resources and funding.
Many congressional Republicans support Donald Trump, but would they be willing to bear the financial cost?
- Visas H-1B
During his campaign, the president had expressed his desire to make it more difficult for immigrant workers to obtain work visas, and the U.S. companies involved (skilled foreign workers in specialized professions) had to pay regulatory costs.
- DACA
Trump ended President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provided “temporary deportation assistance” and work permits to more than 650,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors.
The main concern has been whether the recipients of this assistance would be more vulnerable to deportation.
- Visas TN
The cancellation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) treaty with Mexico and Canada was a major element in Mr. Trump’s campaign.
Immigration-related changes after the arrival of the COVID-19
The arrival of VIDOC 19 has made it possible to review the political priorities of the United States. Donald Trump took a radical decision, which provoked many divergent opinions among the different political parties and public bodies.
Donald Trump has already taken many measures to limit illegal immigration within the American continent and we know it (for example with the Mexicans).
But at the end of April, he makes an announcement that will change everything.
He declares a suspension of immigration. This “pause” will be for 60 days but could be extended depending on the economic situation.
He says that visas to work temporarily in America will not be affected by this new measure.
According to him, suspending immigration allows unemployed Americans to be the first on the job market for the next job openings in the future.
Donald Trump has only one word in his mouth: The “economy”.
For him, it would be unfair if Americans laid off because of the virus were to be replaced by new immigrant workers.
He also speaks about the willingness to maintain medical facilities for Americans. That the Americans would have medical equipment accordingly and thus reduce the spread of COVID-19.
The President’s supporters applauded this initiative, but there was much criticism of it. Many believe that he is exploiting the pandemic to impose immigration cuts that he has long supported.
He has indicated that only those seeking to come to the United States on a permanent basis by getting what is called a green card would be affected.
At the same time, Democrats and immigrant rights organizations are critical of this decision.
Four years ago, the President was very ambitious to make changes to the U.S. immigration system, but it did not go as planned, and adjustments had to be made because of VIDOC 9, such as the suspension of immigration. This suspension is causing a lot of debate because a lot of people think that Donald Trump is using the virus.
