【特朗普宣布美国暂停移民60天】当地时间4月21日,白宫举行新冠肺炎疫情新闻发布会。美国总统特朗普在会上宣布,美国将在未来60天内暂停接收移民。此举在美国现代史上没有过先例。
US President Donald Trump reacts to a question from a reporter during the daily coronavirus task force briefing at the White House in Washington, US, April 21, 2020. [Photo/Agencies]
President Trump said Tuesday he will halt immigration to the United States for 60 days, a freeze that will block green card recipients from moving to the country but will continue to allow temporary workers on nonimmigrant visas to enter.
美国总统特朗普于周二(4月21日)表示,将在未来60天内暂停接收移民。这一行政令适用于绿卡申请者,但不影响持非移民签证的临时劳工入境美国。
Trump portrayed the action, which he first previewed in a tweet late Monday night, as an effort to protect American workers from competition overseas. He indicated during a White House briefing that there would be certain exemptions but did not elaborate.
特朗普将之描述为保护美国工人不受海外竞争的举措。他在白宫新闻发布会上表示,将会有一些豁免,但没有详细说明。周一(4月20日)晚,特朗普首先在推特上发文预告将签署该行政令。
exemption[ɡzempn]:n.免除,豁免
The president provided a rationale for the unprecedented decision that was primarily economic, arguing that he wants Americans to have access to work as millions of people have lost their jobs amid the coronavirus crisis.
这是一项史无前例的决定,而特朗普称这主要是基于经济原因。他表示,数百万人在新冠疫情危机期间失去工作,他希望美国人能获得工作机会。
The text of the order was still being written, Trump said Tuesday night, but he expected to sign it on Wednesday.
特朗普在周二(4月21日)晚上说,这项行政令的文本还在撰写当中,但他预计会在周三签署。
“It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad,” Trump said at the briefing.“We must first take care of the American worker.”
特朗普在发布会上说:“让从国外来的新移民劳工取代因病毒而失业的美国人,是错误和不公平的,我们必须首先照顾美国工人”。
The measure will include exemptions for certain groups, though it’s unclear how extensive they will be. Trump said farmers will not be affected by the order, appearing to confirm that visas for agricultural workers would fall outside the scope of the measure.
相关措施将包括对某些群体的豁免,不过目前还不清楚豁免范围会有多大。特朗普还表示,农民不会因此受影响,这似乎证实,农业工人的签证将不在该措施的范围之内。
On Twitter, he cited"the attack from the invisible enemy", as he calls the virus, and the need to protect the jobs of Americans, but did not give details.
他在推特上提到了“来自隐形敌人的攻击”(这是他对病毒的称呼),以及保护美国人就业的需要,但没有给出细节。
Immigrant visas are issued for those who have been approved to move permanently to the United States. The majority are family members of US citizens or permanent residents.
移民签证是为那些被批准永久移居美国的人签发的。大多数获得者是美国公民或永久居民的家庭成员。
The United States already has suspended routine visa services overseas, so that very few would-be immigrants are likely to be stopped just before they board planes.
美国已经暂停了境外常规签证服务,因此几乎没有潜在移民会直接受此影响。
The Capitol and a stop sign are seen in Washington, DC, the United States, February 13, 2020. /Xinhua
Harvard Business School professor William Kerr, whose research focuses on how high-skilled immigrant labor has reshaped the US economy, said closing off the pipeline for foreign talent could create barriers to economic success.
哈佛商学院教授威廉科尔表示,切断海外人才输送渠道可能会影响经济的成功。他主要研究高技能移民劳动力如何重塑了美国经济。
Immigrants represent more than a quarter of US entrepreneurs and a quarter of inventors, Kerr said.“These are contributions that are very valuable to economic growth,” he said.“We are going to need to restore large parts of our economy, and immigrants could be very helpful in that role.”
科尔说:“移民占美国企业家的四分之一以上,占发明家的四分之一。这些贡献对经济增长非常有价值。我们需要恢复大部分经济活动,移民在这方面帮助很大。”
Critics say the government is using the pandemic to crack down on immigration.
批评人士说,政府正在利用新冠疫情打击移民。
Immigration has traditionally been a strong campaigning theme for Mr Trump, but has taken a back seat during the pandemic and in the lead-up to the November election.
对特朗普来说,移民历来是强有力的竞选主题,但在新冠疫情和11月总统大选之前,移民问题已退居次要地位。
Over the past four weeks, more than 20 million Americans have registered for unemployment benefits. That amounts to roughly as many jobs as employers had added over the previous decade.
在过去四周,有2千多万美国人登记领取失业救济金。这大约相当于过去10年的新增就业岗位。
The US has more than 787,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and more than 42,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
根据约翰斯·霍普金斯大学的统计,美国新冠肺炎确诊病例超过78.7万例,死亡病例超过4.2万例。
Last year, just over one million people were granted lawful permanent resident status in the US, according to the Department of Homeland Security. The top countries of origin were Mexico, China, India, the Dominican Republic, the Philippines and Cuba.
美国国土安全部称,去年仅100多万人获得了美国合法永久居民身份。排在前几位的移民来源国是墨西哥、中国、印度、多米尼加共和国、菲律宾和古巴。
More than half of those, though, were cases of"adjusted status from within the US" - meaning they were already there - and only 459,000 arrived from abroad. The latter group would be the ones presumably affected by an immigration ban.
不过,其中一半以上是“来自美国国内的身份调整”(即申请者在美国境内),只有45.9万人来自海外。后者可能是受到移民禁令影响的群体。
When it comes to refugees, there were 30,000 people admitted into the US in 2019, most of them from Congo, Myanmar, Ukraine, Eritrea, Afghanistan and Syria.
2019年,美国接收了3万名难民,其中大部分来自刚果、缅甸、乌克兰、厄立特里亚、阿富汗和叙利亚。
英文来源:BBC、华盛顿邮报、国会山报