SSN Commentary

Trump's New Immigration Ban Is Potentially More Dangerous, and More Legally Vulnerable, Than You Might Think

Policy field

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Drexel University
Yale Law School
New York University School of Law

Originally Published as: Anil Kalhan "Trump's New Immigration Ban Is Potentially More Dangerous, and More Legally Vulnerable, Than You Might ThinkAmerican Constitution Society, April 30, 2020.

When faced with criticism for his responses to the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump has reacted almost reflexively by touting his administration’s immigration restrictions as the centerpiece of its efforts. But long before the pandemic, Trump had amassed a considerable record of manufacturing “bogus emergencies” to pursue longer-term immigration policy goals. His latest immigration order might be his most brazenly disingenuous, using a pretextual response to a genuine crisis to hack away at basic features of the immigration system that Congress established decades ago, and to impose his own policy preferences in their place by executive decree.