What A Day - Trump's Red Light on Green Cards

Episode Date: April 22, 2020

Trump is preparing an executive order that will suspend the issuing of green cards for 60 days. We speak to Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum, who says following through on Trump’s order would amount to turning our backs on the same people who are fighting Covid-19 on the front-lines.The Senate passed the interim relief deal yesterday. It funds small businesses, hospitals and testing, but doesn’t address hazard pay or vote-by-mail -- issues that Dems have been pushing for.And in headlines: Joe Biden’s fundraising numbers, Idris Elba’s bad quarantine idea, and a major comedy theatre closes its doors in NYC.

It's Wednesday, April 22nd. I'm Akilah Hughes. And I'm Gideon Resnick, and this is What A Day, wishing you a happy Earth Day, when Mother Nature is feeling herself more than ever. Yeah, I gotta say, the birds have been outside celebrating pretty loud for a few days now, and I'm over it. On today's show, the next coronavirus relief bill is one step closer to getting passed than some headlines. But first, the latest. President Trump announced a new immigration order yesterday in the midst of the global pandemic. This came after a tweet he sent on Monday night saying he was going to, quote, temporarily suspend immigration to the United States, exclamation point. You know, to be clear, he's not quite doing that. So Gideon, tell us what he actually is doing. Yeah, we still don't have text of the executive order. But here's what we know so far based on

more of what he had to say. Trump said that he's going to temporarily halt issuing green cards, which is being interpreted as another means of preventing people from immigrating to the United States, though it's much less sweeping of a policy change than that original tweet suggested. Effectively, the order will likely apply to people applying for permanent residency. Now, Trump said that the suspension would be in effect for 60 days, and then he would assess the economic situation the country is in to make a further decision after that. So it's possible that it could extend further. His stated's possible that it could extend further. His stated argument is that Americans shouldn't have to compete against non-citizens

to regain jobs as the economy has been thrown into crisis by the coronavirus. The order, which was still being written as of Monday evening, would not apply to guest worker programs and individuals entering on a temporary basis. Reportedly, that's because business groups that employ workers on temporary visas were pretty pissed and pushed back on that. Yeah, you know, this isn't the first time Trump has made moves to restrict immigration with executive orders. Before the pandemic, we had the travel bans from majority Muslim nations. And since the pandemic, the immigration system has kind of come to a standstill as borders have closed down. But what do we know about the president's power to do this?

Yeah, so officials of the Justice Department were reportedly still looking into whether Trump had the actual legal authority to outright suspend the issuing of green cards on Tuesday. And his tweet that was sent previewing the policy appeared to catch government officials off guard. They apparently just watch the feed like we all do. While the order is obviously backwards, it also wouldn't appear to solve the economic issues the administration thinks it would as employers are not feverishly looking to make hires during the midst of the crisis.

Yeah, makes sense. Yeah. In fact, it's possible that this could do just the opposite. For instance, impacting foreign students at American colleges and universities, individuals who had spent thousands of dollars to go through the process of becoming legalized and closing off the country to the very kinds of people who have historically led to American economic success. And it could also leave families in limbo and cause additional strife for a nation that is already struggling under the weight of COVID-19. For more on the situation and its ramifications, I spoke with Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, an advocacy organization. So I think we have to acknowledge first and foremost that the majority of Americans are scared. They're scared for their economic security. They're scared for their physical

well-being. And when people are scared, they can be led into places that are very dark and divisive. And that, in essence, is what the president is trying to do. When you look at the data, you know, 20 percent, 21 percent of doctors are immigrants. You know, over 25 percent are direct care workers. Seventy three percent are farm workers. Forty percent are packing food in one way or another. So immigrants are shoulder to shoulder with U.S. citizens, helping us through the recovery and the response to COVID-19. And what the president is asking his voters to do is to turn on the people that are helping them, whether it's helping them get food to their table or helping them keep safe and healthy. And that's just not just an irresponsible thing for the president to

do from a policy perspective, but it's also an immoral thing for the president to do just from a humane perspective. Yeah, Noorani also said that this and the Trump administration's actions throughout the crisis could impact the country's immigration system in the long term. While the president's executive order may or may not amount to much in terms of policy implications, it is going to create a deep divide within the country when it comes to immigration. And that divide, it was already there between kind of your urban and metropolitan areas and your rural and exurban areas that just don't have as many immigrants or more recent populations of immigrants. So, you know, just the news that we've seen over the last week where you see the outbreak of COVID-19 cases in meat packing plants in the Midwest, in South Dakota and Iowa, you're going to see these immigrant communities without a lot of access to resources, without a lot of access to any sort of support, all of a sudden out there alone and under an incredible amount of pressure from politicians and Americans who are being led by the president to say, you

know what, that person who does not look or sound like you may actually do you harm. And that's the story that he is starting to tell the country through this executive order, which I think then has long-term implications for the way that the country is, you know, frankly able to hold together in a cohesive way, but also the way that we see immigration policy into the future. Yeah, so those meatpacking plants that Narani was mentioning employ a lot of immigrants who have gotten sick with the virus, largely due to unsafe working conditions in the plants themselves. A spokesperson for one of the plants, Smithfield Foods in South Dakota, actually blamed the immigrants for causing the outbreak at the plant.

So we'll follow this executive order as we learn more, but lots of other stuff is going on in D.C. and outside of it. Akilah, give us an update on the relief bill that's making its way through Congress. All right. So yesterday, the Senate passed the interim relief deal that we've been talking about. It still needs to pass the House and be signed by the president. We've talked a lot about what it entails on the show, you know, replenishing loans for small businesses, another round of funding for hospitals, plus money for tests. But what feels like a really big issue is what's not in the bill. There is not a bit about hazard pay, which would compensate those who continue to risk their health and lives to keep essential businesses running. There's not a word about vote by mail, which is going to be

necessary this November, since we've already seen that it's necessary now. And money for states and local governments is similarly lacking. Those are all issues that Democrats have raised, but Republicans have told them to wait until the next deal. But when it comes to the next deal, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said yesterday that more funding will not solve our economic crisis and instead is choosing now to worry about the debt we're taking on. He also wants to wait until the Senate is back from recess, and that's at least until May 4th. So, you know, I guess we're just in this holding pattern. Yeah. And I mean, some have been calling on Democrats to just pass their own bill in the House rather than negotiating first with the Senate on a bipartisan deal, seeing as this is how they're acting. Yeah, that makes sense.

Well, one bit of potentially positive news. The FDA approved an at-home test for COVID-19. It's called Pixel by LabCorp, and most will be able to get it by filling out an eligibility survey and paying $119. The company behind the test also said that it would make the tests available first for healthcare workers and emergency workers who could have been exposed to the virus or have symptoms, and that it would be making the self-collection kits available to consumers in the coming weeks. The company also noted that because the tests are done by consumers in their own home, it would cut down on the demand for masks and other protective equipment that is usually needed

to collect specimen from people. So sounds like a win-win. Yeah, and there are not a lot of wins lately, so that's great. Outside of the United States, what else do we know that's happening around the world? All right, so a review of death counts in 11 countries has revealed that at least 25,000 more people have died during the COVID-19 pandemic than the official tallies actually show. Now, these numbers may include people who didn't die from the disease, but it almost certainly includes those who weren't able to be treated in the hospital and were thus left out of the official count.

There's a pretty tight article about it in The Times. I think it's worth digging into. There's some really good information there. And people with other illnesses are suffering on top of this COVID-19 crisis. So the American Cancer Society put out a survey and found that one in four patients had to delay their cancer treatments due to worries about being immunocompromised

or the financial strain of affording treatments when they can't work. Now, obviously this is an American survey, but there's reason to believe that this is a very sad universal condition for those battling the disease. And the number of people facing acute hunger could double this year, according to the United Nations World Food Program. That would And the number of people facing acute hunger could double this year,

according to the United Nations World Food Program. That would bring the number of people on the brink of starvation to about 265 million people in low and middle income nations. Food aid and humanitarian aid is desperately needed. And the UN says that global donors have only pledged a quarter of the $2 billion needed to respond to the challenges brought by the pandemic. So, Jeff Bezos, we're looking at you. And that's the latest. But if you're interested in helping out and are able to, head over to crooked.com slash coronavirus, where we've set up a relief fund. Donations are going to organizations fighting hunger in the U.S. and doing other direct

service work during this time. It's Wednesday. We're halfway through another week in the house and the most exciting event we have is watching old Instagram videos of events we used to go to. So, you know, that's the theme of today's check-in. Giddy, I know you've seen the news And the most exciting event we have is watching old Instagram videos of events we used to go to. So, you know, that's the theme of today's check in. Giddy, I know you've seen the news about the National Spelling Bee being canceled. What has been the saddest cancellation you've seen? Spelling Bee was up there. That hit pretty hard.

It's got to be the NBA, though. Yeah. Even watching or seeing content related to basketball is triggering at the moment. I would watch an 0-72 team play 15 minutes with two 85 85 year old men. Like I, like anything would be great right now. Yeah. I definitely feel that I've, I've rewatched space jam since we've been in the house and I'm watching the Jordan doc. I just like,

I miss it. I want it to be live and exciting. I want like modern records to be set. Yeah. And the culture around the NBA is so fun too. And it's just, yeah, it's tough. Um, but what were you looking forward to? You know, it's funny. I don't even realize, I don't think I realized how much I was looking forward to this, but I was really looking forward to the DNC this summer. Oh yeah. It sounds corny, but I'm like, I don't really get a lot of time to

travel. You know, Milwaukee is a beautiful city. It's like got a very unique sort of like lake and weather and whatever else. But also just like getting to meet all those people and going to parties and being like, yay, we all get to decompress like we all work in news. Now I'm like, no, zero percent. I'm also probably not going to meet any new people. So I guess any cancellation where there were going to be new people. Look, I mean, there could be some Zoom DNC tangential thing we get invited to.

I know they're doing their best, but I don't like it. Yeah. Either way, the invitation would be nice. It would be nice to feel included. Yeah. I just want to be a part of something. Well, we did it. Our temperatures have been checked.

We're right here with you all in the joyous moments and the disappointment. So anyway, we're going to check in with you all again tomorrow. Let's wrap up with some headlines. Headlines. Rumors around North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un's health have been on the rise in recent days. It all started after he was notably absent from the celebration of his grandfather's birthday last week. An online newspaper based in South Korea reported that Kim received heart surgery the day before due to excessive smoking, obesity, and being overworked. The rumors of his condition were shot down by the South Korean government,

whose financial markets dipped because of the speculation. U.S. intelligence officials say that there is no evidence to suggest that he might be dead, though they said they'll be monitoring news of his health. Many are watching the situation closely as the dictator does not have a clear successor to take his place. Yeah. A new fundraising report revealed that Joe Biden is lagging far behind President Donald Trump, despite his campaign seeing its best fundraising month in March. My man just needs to start selling some kind of terrifying red hat. People get behind that, clearly. The numbers show that Biden and the DNC are nearly $187 million behind Trump in the RNC,

though to be fair, Trump has been in a perpetual state of running for president since 2015. The New York Times reported that Biden's campaign would have to raise a million dollars every day until the election just to catch up to what Trump has now, and that's not counting what Trump is expected to raise by November. The pandemic is partly to blame for Joe's low numbers with fewer people making donations and in-person events that could have drawn donors getting canceled. For now, the campaign has been ramping up virtual fundraisers, which they say are doing pretty well. I would definitely cop an I had hairy legs tee if one were made. Honestly, not only you. I would be wearing that every day. The actor

who was the James Bond of our dreams but became the Macavity of our nightmares, Idris Elba, might have just won the honor of having the worst idea in all of quarantine. I think that the world should take a week of quarantine every year just to remember this time, remember each other. I really

do. Okay, not quite. Gal Gadot singing Imagine level of celebrity obliviousness, but it's getting there. Mr. Elba, I have some troubling news, but for a lot of people not getting paid for a week is actually bad. In Elba's defense, he has more coronavirus experience than most of us. He and his wife were some of the first famous people to test positive. They've also recently become UN Goodwill ambassadors and are helping to launch a $40 million fund to benefit farmers and food producers affected by the pandemic. This is more than enough for us to forget that Elba ever had this idea to begin with. And if he does end up doing a voluntary self-quarantine sometime as planned,

we hope that he has a good first one or two days before he realizes that what he's doing is very, very strange. Yeah, like if I'm just taking a week off, I'm hopefully going to be on a vacation and not remembering the great times we're having now. All right. Live entertainment has not fared well under coronavirus, and the latest casualty is New York's Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. The improv and sketch comedy theater launched many of today's most popular comic voices, but its founders announced on Tuesday that the pandemic has made it financially impossible for them to keep the doors open at their Hell's Kitchen location, their only theater in New York. Classes will continue, but your opportunities to meet a flannel-wearing bearded man backstage and date him for three months without him asking you a single question will be limited.

UCB still has plans to open its two theaters in Los Angeles following lockdown. Pick the right show and you'll be in a seven-person audience and have no problem social distancing. I'm going to be miles away from the next Herald. Yes, and those are the headlines. We can all agree that people need to be able to vote this November. And we can all also agree that there's no guarantee it's going to be safe to vote in person for the foreseeable future. So that's why Vote Save America has been telling everyone to call Congress. We want them to make sure states have the money they need to invest in vote by mail and early voting and make in-person polling locations safer for everyone. So today, we want as many people as possible to go to votesaveamerica.com slash call to get connected

to their representatives in Congress and tell them why this is important to you. We even wrote out a script so you know exactly what to say. Go to votesaveamerica.com slash call to call Congress and demand safer elections. That's all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, be one of seven people at our comedy show in July and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just ancient scrolls that only reveal themselves to the brave like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at cricket.com slash subscribe. I'm Akilah Hughes. I'm Gideon Resnick. And we'll see you at the Zoom DNC. I'll be the one crying with like just a river of tears as my background.

I'll still have hairy legs. What a day is a product of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Charlotte Landis. Sonia Tunn is our assistant producer. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our senior producer is Katie Long. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.