Experts say Trump is using pandemic as “pretext” for harsh immigration policy

The COVID-19 pandemic is adding an additional layer of uncertainty to the lives of immigrants in the United States — many of whom are essential frontline workers — because of the Trump administration’s continued policies to deport and detain undocumented people, according to experts at a Wednesday digital forum hosted by the House Committee on Homeland Security.

“Millions of immigrants on the frontline of the pandemic not only live in the neighborhoods that have been hardest hit, but are doing the jobs we finally recognize as essential.” said Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y. She specifically referenced the delivery, grocery, and cleaning jobs that are often done by immigrant workers.

The forum was hosted by Rice and Reps. Yvette Clark, D-N.Y., and Nanette Barragan, D-Calif., and included conversation with the director of DHS Watch Ur Jaddou and Jon Baselice, who serves as the executive director of immigration policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

An April report from the liberal non-profit Center for American Progress found that 202,500 DACA recipients are frontline workers during the pandemic.  About 29,000 of those DACA recipients are healthcare workers.

“These people are putting themselves at risk when they go to work to make sure our country, which we all love and call home, can make it through this tough time,” Baselice said.

Many immigrants, however, cannot rely on the country’s social safety net in normal times, let alone during this public health crisis. That lack of protection makes the risk of showing up to work even greater. 

“Despite their essential work, many of them don’t have access to health insurance,” Jaddou said. “Many of them don’t have access to paid sick leave. Many of them don’t have access to personal protective gear. In the last CARES Act, even though they are tax-paying, they didn’t get access to those stimulus checks.”

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has suspended in-person operations, limiting the support immigrants need to submit renewals, applications and petitions. The agency needs to be flexible so that people who are documented can remain so, Jaddou said, which may include automatically extending immigration status and work permits. She also called for policies that ease the fears of detainment and deportation for undocumented frontline workers. 

“ICE could step forward and announce that they won’t be enforcing the law against people who are doing essential work for us, or better yet providing work permits, even if temporarily,” she said. “We want to make sure they are given a way to come and step forward so they don’t have to fear continuing as they go to their work.”

Both Jaddou and Baselice raised concerns over the administration using the pandemic as leverage to advance harsh immigration policies. Jaddou said COVID-19 is being used as a “pretext” to deport people and restrict immigration.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring some immigration for 60 days on April 22. It suspends the issuance of green cards and applies to people seeking permanent residence in the United States. The nonpartisan think-tank Migration Policy Institute estimated that the order could block roughly 52,000 green cards over the 60-day period.

For Baselice, this translates into a threat to American companies who rely on diverse, international talent. He said that Chamber of Commerce leadership is worried about what future restrictive immigration policy could look like.

“Long term, if you actually want to have a recovery, you need to ensure that companies have the ability to hire the workers that they need to hire,” he said. “If you want to generate economic growth — which we’re going to need to in order to get out of this pickle we’re in — trying to do that with a smaller workforce is a vastly suboptimal economic policy.”