Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is slamming President Donald Trump for his decision to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Biden released a statement late Tuesday explaining this is another way for Trump to distract Americans from his response to the pandemic.
“Rather than execute a swift and aggressive effort to ramp up testing, Donald Trump is tweeting incendiary rhetoric about immigrants in the hopes that he can distract everyone from the core truth: he’s moved too slowly to contain this virus, and we are all paying the price for it,” Biden wrote.
Trump’s decision to sign the executive order garnered reactions from both sides, as IJR previously reported. The president said during Tuesday’s White House coronavirus press briefing that this will apply to those seeking green cards and last 60 days. He is expected to sign the executive order on Wednesday.
I will be signing my Executive Order prohibiting immigration into our Country today. In the meantime, even without this order, our Southern Border, aided substantially by the 170 miles of new Border Wall & 27,000 Mexican soldiers, is very tight – including for human trafficking!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 22, 2020
Additionally, Biden noted it is reasonable to screen travelers coming into the United States for the coronavirus and to also restrict travel to prevent the spread. He reiterated it is not reasonable to lose focus on testing.
“But it is irrational to refuse to focus the full force of the presidency on producing and distributing the number of tests we need to determine whether all people entering the U.S. — regardless of citizenship status — are carrying COVID-19, and to successfully contain the virus.”
Some lawmakers have been critical of Trump’s testing strategy.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif) also believes Trump is using these policy issues as a distraction, as IJR previously reported.
The Trump Administration promised 27 million tests by the end of March.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 22, 2020
As of now, only 4 million have been completed. It’s unacceptable.
We can’t safely reopen the economy without scaling up testing, and we can’t effectively scale up testing unless Donald Trump does his job.
Biden called on Trump to focus his attention on testing.
“That’s one of the most glaring failures of this president’s response and sending inflammatory tweets to try to hide it helps no one. Mr. President, focus on getting the tests,” Biden wrote.
The Senate passed a nearly $500 billion coronavirus relief package on Tuesday, which includes $25 billion for a national plan for coronavirus testing. The House is expected to pass the bill by Thursday.