DHS Secretary: More Action on Immigration Coming From Trump Administration

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf speaks during a press briefing about the CCP virus at the White House in Washington on March 14, 2020. Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

More action from the Trump administration is coming in the future after the president signed an order barring immigration into the United States for 60 days, a top official said.

Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf called President Donald Trump’s executive order “a first step.”

“I think you’ll see additional steps. And in that executive order that the president issued yesterday, it actually directs the Department of Homeland Security, as well as the Department of Labor, to look at these non-immigrant or temporary visa programs, and come back to him with recommendations,” Wolf said during an April 23 appearance on Fox News.

“And that’s something that the department has been looking at for the past several months. So, we’re well underway, and look forward to presenting to the president those recommendations for additional steps.”

The order states that within 30 days, Wolf, and Secretary of Labor, Eugene Scalia, in consultation with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, shall review nonimmigrant programs and issue recommendations to Trump for other measures “appropriate to stimulate the United States economy and ensure the prioritization, hiring, and employment of United States workers.”

The White House said in a statement that Trump was asking officials in his administration to review guest worker programs to see whether additional measures “should be taken to protect American workers.”

Visitors to the New York State Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel on March 18, 2020, due to closures over CCP virus concerns in New York City. John Minchillo/AP Photo

Border Patrol agents overlook the Rio Grande towards Mexico on the Roma Bluffs near Rio Grande City, Texas, on March 22, 2019. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

The order, which Trump signed on Wednesday, bars “the entry into the United States of aliens as immigrants,” with several significant exemptions.

The order applies to aliens without a visa or travel documents who are outside the United States when the order goes into effect. The decree does not apply to permanent U.S. residents as well as spouses, children, and prospective adoptees of U.S. citizens.

The order targets “new immigrants who are coming to the U.S.; these are individuals that are competing with Americans for jobs,” Wolf said on Fox.

Some 26 million Americans have filed for unemployment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The job losses stem from harsh measures put into place by governors, upon recommendation from the federal government, in a bid to blunt the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a novel coronavirus that emerged from mainland China last year. The virus causes the COVID-19 disease.

In another immigration-related update, the Supreme Court on Thursday made it easier to deport green card holders convicted of serious crimes.

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.