President Trump tweeted that he was temporarily suspending all immigration in the wake of the coronavirus crisis and sure as the sun comes up, the blats of the left's racism-xenophobia vuvuzuelas could be heard far and wide.

Pathetic attempt to shift blame from his Visible Incompetence to an Invisible Enemy. The President needs to reread the Declaration of Independence, criticizing King George for restricting immigration to America. https://t.co/LO0OndE88A — Tim Kaine (@timkaine) April 21, 2020

Once again, rather than rise to the moment, Trump uses shameful anti-immigrant rhetoric as he faces re-election. Sadly for America, he has failed on leadership, testing, and competence. Xenophobia will not undo his failures, and it will not save American lives. https://t.co/nrQW6OJyrX — Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) April 21, 2020

This is beyond belief.



Immigrants have always made America great. Suspending immigration & giving into racism & xenophobia won’t solve our problems.



Instead it will have a catastrophic impact on our health care, food supply & the systems we are relying upon during this crisis. https://t.co/lM427P0h2S — Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) April 21, 2020

President Trump now seeks to distract us from his fumbled COVID-19 response by trying to put the blame on immigrants. The truth is many immigrants are on our front lines, protecting us as doctors, nurses, health aids, farmworkers, and restaurant workers. https://t.co/nJef4W5qZK — (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 21, 2020

President Trump claims the #COVID19 pandemic is improving and we can begin to reopen. Yet he also claims it’s so bad we must close our nation’s doors to all immigrants? His handling of this crisis isn’t based in logic. It’s based in his own reckless, dangerous agenda. — André Carson (@RepAndreCarson) April 21, 2020

1 in 4 healthcare workers are immigrants but you want to blame immigrants for this health crisis? Does not add up. https://t.co/8DddRPtzNR pic.twitter.com/FFNhA5VhtT — Mona Chalabi (@MonaChalabi) April 21, 2020

It's complete bee ess. The coronavirus is indeed ebbing, but the economy remains flat on its back. Millions and millions of Americans and legal (and illegal) immigrants have been thrown out of work. And many sections of the economy that immigrants are drawn to - restaurant work, laundromats, retail, start-ups, gardening, housekeeping, hospitality -- are among the hardest hit. It makes sense to put the Americans thrown out of work back into the workforce before bringing in new people.

The left, of course, tends to cheer a bad economy, and blue state governors and mayors are doing their best to keep it shut against all common sense. Banning drive-through tulip viewing, drive-in church services, icy cold ocean surfing, trips to one's own isolated getaway cabins, seed sales, and other absurd measures are right there in this category, as is the introduction of East German-style 'snitches get rewards' culture. These aren't Trump's things. These are blue things that keep the economy from recovering.

This is not to say it's not sad. Imagine waiting in the legal immigration line and finally reaching the front only to hear ... such news. In my coding class, we have a Russian woman whose old mother is all by herself in coronavirus-hit Russia, where everything is shut, an elderly Gulag survivor she'd like to take care of at no expense to us - and the poor old babushka can't come. The other thing is, immigrants often do enrich society as well as keep it dynamic. Not having new faces in is a net minus for us, if for nothing else that it's a sure sign that the economy is not growing. But we already know that. The immigration shutdown is pause just as the immigration of the 1920s and 1930s was justified on the same grounds. The good thing is that Trump has said this will be temporary.

The left's knee-jerk yellings have nothing to do with racism or xenophobia and everything to do with whipping up hate for Trump, economy be damned.

Pramila Jayapal's tweet is particularly disgusting. Immigrants have always made America great? Some have, some haven't. Nobody wants more ingrates like the Tsaraev brothers let in. Nobody wants more Ilhan Omars. Immigrants are like everyone, with most and least worthy members. An everybody who's ever lived here except for Native Americans are descended from immigrants. What are Native Americans to Pramila, chopped liver? Or is it recent immigrants she's talking about? She happens to be one of such people, coming here in 2000 from India. So in light of her known loathing for America, she's saying America's only great because she's in it.

Don't make us retch.

Surveys show that about 80% of the public is fine with President Trump calling a pause on immigration. This poll here shows that a large majority of the public is opposed to mass immigration, legal or not. Trump would be unlikely to carry through on this without public support. Maybe these clowns, who support every restrictive measure on Americans that any blue state can come up with, should knock it off.

Image credit: Lorie Schaull, via Flickr // CC BY-SA 2.0