In a tweet issued Monday evening, President Donald Trump pledged to sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the United States. However, his tweet provided no additional information on whether the suspension would include all countries or how it would potentially handle visitors with work and other visas.
“In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens,” Trump wrote in the tweet, “I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!”
Trump’s pledge follows the March closures of the Mexican and Canadian borders to all nonessential travel, although trade is still allowed.
On March 11, the U.S. also barred the entry of all foreign nationals who had visited China, Iran or any of the following European countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
On March 19, the U.S. State Department issued a Level 4 advisory recommending against any global travel by U.S. citizens.
Newsweek has reached out to the White House for comment. It had not yet responded by the time of publication.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
