Despite all immigration to the United States being effectively shut down for weeks amid the coronavirus pandemic, after President Trump expressed his desire to make the policy official with an executive order, ABC’s Good Morning America immediately denounced the move as “xenophobic” and just a play to Trump’s “hardline” base.
“Breaking news overnight, President Trump announces a major move on immigration, saying he will suspend all legal immigration to the United States....Drawing a fierce reaction overnight,” co-host George Stephanopoulos announced at the top of the broadcast. In the report that followed minutes later, senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega warned: “So since the outbreak, the White House has been using the virus to justify increased restrictions on immigration, they’ve basically been working up to this.”
She continued to rant: “A move like this, though, would be absolutely unprecedented and would essentially shut down the legal immigration system....And one thing that’s certain, this is definitely going to be challenged in court, opponents are calling this xenophobic.”
Repeating the story early in the 8:00 a.m. ET hour, Vega reiterated her condemnation:
Halting immigration, even temporarily like this, would be unprecedented in this country and it sure could be challenged in court. This morning, the President’s hardline immigration supporters, they are praising the move, but opponents are calling it xenophobic and they point to the number of corona cases already here in the U.S., we’re talking about more than any other cases than any other country in the world. The mayor of L.A. saying Mexico is more worried about the rate of infection coming from the U.S., not vice versa.
She then explained that the President’s motivation was economic as well as medical: “But President Trump says this is not just about stopping the spread of infection, he says this is about protecting American jobs.”
“And speaking of jobs, according to the Census, one in four doctors in this country and one in five nurses are immigrants,” Vega remarked, as if the administration was planning deportations of legal immigrants.
In the early days of the health crisis, Vega accused the President of racism during a White House briefing, claiming it was offensive to use the phrase “Chinese virus” when talking about the origin of the pandemic.
Here is a transcript of the April 21 coverage:
7:00 AM ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Breaking news overnight, President Trump announces a major move on immigration, saying he will suspend all legal immigration to the United States. He claims it’s to fight the coronavirus and to protect American jobs. Drawing a fierce reaction overnight.
(...)
7:03 AM ET
STEPHANOPOULOS: And a lot of other developments happening overnight as well, including that breaking news from President Trump. He announced that he’s going to sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States. Cecilia Vega is at the White House. And, Cecilia, this came in one of those late-night tweets, so not a lot of details yet beyond that headline.
CECILIA VEGA: Yeah, George, but we are hearing this could be signed as early as today. But right now, a lot of questions about the logic behind this, since the U.S. already has more confirmed corona cases than any other country in the world. But in that overnight tweet, the president made it clear this is not just about keeping people who might have the virus out of the country, he says this is also about, quote, “The need to protect the jobs of our great American citizens.”
So since the outbreak, the White House has been using the virus to justify increased restrictions on immigration, they’ve basically been working up to this. A move like this, though, would be absolutely unprecedented and would essentially shut down the legal immigration system. Listen to this, even during the 1918 flu more than 100,000 immigrants legally came into this country.
So it’s unclear how exactly this would work, but it could impact hundreds of thousands of visa and green card holders planning to enter the country legally, we’re talking about people who have family here already. And one thing that’s certain, this is definitely going to be challenged in court, opponents are calling this xenophobic. But, Robin, it is worth noting this morning, in New York City alone, more than half of the workers on the front lines right now are immigrants.
ROBIN ROBERTS: We have to keep that in mind. And as you said, still so much is unclear. Thank you, Cecilia.
(...)
8:00 AM ET
STEPHANOPOULOS: Breaking overnight, immigration crackdown. President Trump announces he’s closing off the country, temporarily suspending immigration. The latest from the White House.
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8:03 AM ET
STEPHANOPOULOS: And we are going to begin now with that breaking news overnight. President Trump announcing that he is going to sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the United States. Let’s go back to our senior White House correspondent Cecilia Vega with the latest from the White House. Good morning, Cecilia.
VEGA: George, good morning again. This tweet overnight caught some administration officials off guard. Halting immigration, even temporarily like this, would be unprecedented in this country and it sure could be challenged in court. This morning, the President’s hardline immigration supporters, they are praising the move, but opponents are calling it xenophobic and they point to the number of corona cases already here in the U.S., we’re talking about more than any other cases than any other country in the world. The mayor of L.A. saying Mexico is more worried about the rate of infection coming from the U.S., not vice versa.
But President Trump says this is not just about stopping the spread of infection, he says this is about protecting American jobs. And speaking of jobs, according to the Census, one in four doctors in this country and one in five nurses are immigrants. Michael, the president could sign this executive order as soon as today.
(...)
