SPLC Statement on Trump Administration Executive Order Expanding Immigration Restrictions

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Southern Poverty Law Center issued the following statement by Meredith Stewart, senior supervising attorney with the SPLC’s Immigrant Justice Project, regarding the Trump administration's executive order expanding immigration restrictions to include the suspension of some work visas.
 
“It is not a coincidence that the Trump Administration turns to its anti-immigrant agenda in challenging times. This latest order does nothing to address the challenges all workers face as a result of COVID-19. Instead, it demonizes immigrant workers who are too often exploited and abused by unscrupulous employers. 
 
“Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, white nationalists and other anti-immigrant extremists pushed for this proposal. White House Senior Adviser Stephen Miller himself, advocated for similar restrictions on immigrant workers in a series of emails to Breitbart News in which he also shared white nationalist propaganda.
 
“Rather than using the current crisis to promote its anti-immigrant agenda, the 
White House should be ensuring workers’ safety and reforming guest worker programs to end abuse and exploitation."