The United States will temporarily suspend immigration amid COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday.
Trump, who made the announcement in a tweet Monday night, said that he would signing an executive order to suspend immigration to the U.S.
“In light of the attack from the invisible enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!” wrote Trump.
Trump’s tweet comes amid news of several American manufacturers resuming production efforts and states who’ve announced plans to roll out a reopening of their economies.
Confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus in the United States have now surpassed 785,000, including 42,295 deaths, according to a running tally kept by John Hopkins University.
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Cases in Spain, the country with the second most COVID-19 infections in the world, sit at just over 200,000 as of April 20.
Trump, who has been pressuring states to restart the U.S. economy, sent governors a COVID-19 guideline last week for recovering from the pandemic’s economic hit.
Monday’s announcement to close all immigration to the U.S. also came just hours after the president’s daily COVID-19 briefing.
During the briefing, Trump touted that COVID-19 death rates were beginning to fall in some of the hardest hit areas in the country, and that his administration was looking to start reopening more parts of the U.S. economy.
Trump has offered no further details on what American immigration programs would be impacted by the executive order.
On Saturday, Canada announced an extension on a previous agreement between it and the U.S. to close the border to all non-essential travel amid the coronavirus pandemic.
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