GOP lawmakers press Trump to suspend visas over coronavirus job losses

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Last week we told you about four US Senators who wrote to President Trump urging him to consider expanding and extending his “Immigration Ban” Executive Order. This week eight Republican Congressman have joined in penning a similar letter to the President.

The letter was signed by Representatives Lance Gooden (R-Tx), Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.), Louie Gohmert (R-Tx.), Steve King (R-Ia.), Brian Babin (R-Tx.), Mo Brooks (R-Al.), Michael Burgess (R-Tx.), and Paul Gosar (R-Az.).

The letters come as tens of millions of U.S. workers have filed for unemployment benefits amid the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced many nonessential businesses around the company to temporarily shutter. Economists have warned that high costs associated with the shutdown could force many businesses to remain closed permanently.

Payroll services provider ADP said on Wednesday that the U.S. private sector shed about 20 million jobs during the month of April, a shock to the economy that analysts called "unprecedented."

"The total number of job losses for the month of April alone was more than double the total jobs lost during the Great Recession," Ahu Yildirmaz, co-head of the ADP Research Institute, said. Roy Beck, President of NumbersUSA commented on the letters:

“Their logic of pausing nearly all foreign guest worker visas has to make sense to everybody except those who really do want to keep hundreds of thousands of higher-skilled and less-skilled jobs out of reach of this spring’s American graduates, as well as the 33 million Americans who have lost their jobs.”

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