Editorial
On April 21, President Donald Trump announced that he would halt issuing green cards to prevent immigrants from entering the U.S.
This decision is nothing but a racist act with no proof that it would help the country during this pandemic.
Trump’s supporters immediately agreed with his decision, saying that banning immigration would help stop spreading the virus.
They applauded the president for making the right decision, citing it as a reason to vote for him in the 2020 election.
A positive reaction is exactly what Trump wants so he can continue to gaslight people into thinking he’s actually doing something to keep the pandemic under control, cater to exactly what his supporters want to hear and also not-so-subtly spread his racist propaganda.
It’s comical to think the president believes in trying to stop the spread. As thousands and thousands of citizens are dying every day, he’s pushing to “open up the country.”
Trump argues that our economy is going to undergo irreversible damage if Americans don’t return to work soon, showing that he does not value our health.
His supporters can argue that’s not exactly what he said, but it’s definitely what he wants. Giving states the power to open is just the perfect excuse for him to dodge blame.
Once the virus spreads, he can easily say that he didn’t explicitly tell states to open, but not using his leverage to reprimand governors who are opening up states as early at the end of April is destructive and it will cost American lives.
Rather than focusing on the more important tasks, which are to help the citizens and slow down the pandemic, President Trump chooses to find someone to blame and shift the focus on the most vulnerable group in the U.S.
According to The Washington Post, immigrants comprise 17% of the U.S. workforce.
They are “more than one in four doctors, nearly half the nation’s taxi drivers and chauffeurs and a clear majority of farm workers.”
One-third of all nurses in California, New York and New Jersey, the three states which are heavily impacted by the coronavirus, are immigrants.
In other words, the country needs immigrant employees more than ever.
They are the ones who have to sacrifice the most to stay in this country and take on jobs that no American citizen is willing to take, all while having to work harder to get there.
Trump sees the coronavirus as an international threat, calling it dangerous, racially-charged terms such as “the Chinese virus” or “Wuhan virus,” but he can’t seem to accept to the fact that the U.S. is actually the problem right now.
The U.S. is not the biggest country in the world, neither in size nor population, but it is the country with the most affected cases and deaths worldwide.
There are countries in the world where their citizens are getting tested and finding zero new cases, and they’re ready to open the country in the upcoming days.
The U.S. plans to reopen the country too, but with a small fraction of people being tested, and over 1,000 deaths daily, the decision to reopen is a recipe for catastrophe. Americans are sure to see a second wave of the coronavirus sooner rather than later.
So it’s a shame that Trump still thinks foreigners are the problem when instead, it’s just his incompetent leadership and failure to contain the virus months before it got out of hand.
Now, he will do anything to avoid accountability for his mistakes, and blaming immigrants just seems to be the easiest solution for him.
With all the contributions made by immigrants, they should also be seen as equals to all other citizens in the U.S. However, it’s hard for them to put any effort into the country if they will always be regarded as second-class citizens.
