THE EMPEROR'S NEW CLOTHES

On Monday night following his tweet, President Donald Trump formally announced on Tuesday, April 21st, at a Whitehouse briefing that he will sign an executive order to ban immigration into the United States temporarily. He noted that “it would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the coronavirus to be replaced with new immigrant labor. We must first take care of the American worker.” 

The new order did not impact visitor visas (B1/B2 or student or F1 visas). However, this new order stopped short of blocking H1B and H2 visas, which are issued to guest workers. This exemption came after several business groups responded angrily to Trump’s tweet at the threat of losing thousands of foreign laborers from abroad. 

The COVID19 pandemic has already slowed down the process since most United States embassies across the world are no longer issuing appointments for interviews. It is therefore uncertain what the wait time will be for those petitions already in the pipeline. 

One of the many thousands of persons impacted is American citizen, Mrs. RA., a New York City educator, who has a pending case for her mother to immigrate to the United States. She said while she understands the context of the order, she is just “wondering how much more time will be added to the process. My mother is a retired civil servant in Jamaica, but she still has not started to receive her pension benefits from the government. In addition to my household expenditures, I also have to cover all her financial needs as well in Jamaica.” 

Many other citizens and lawful permanent residents have found themselves in this position.  

Since President Trump indicated that he might extend the order at the end of the sixty days, thousands of petitioners and their beneficiaries remain uncertain about how this will unfold. 

The resolution to this may well rest primarily on how this pandemic plays out. 

 Dionnie Wynter Pfunde is an immigration law practitioner based in Tampa, Florida. She is the owner and managing attorney at Wynter Law Practice and Wynter Immigration. www.wynterimmigration.com

Professor Daren Johnson is based in New York City. He is an education extraordinarie, a human resource professional and an astute leader.