USA LEADS WORLD IN COVID-19 CASES, DEATHS: TRUMP'S ANSWER? SUSPEND IMMIGRATION FROM OTHER COUNTRIES (UH?)

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Ed.s Note: Here's another example of Trump's knee-jerk logic (or illogic) showing his decisions on COVID-19 - or just about any other national challenge - are based more on pandering to his rabid political base than in the reality shown in these numbers.

The U.S. leads the world with 788,110 positive COVID-19 cases (of 2,522,004 worldwide) and 42,374 deaths (of 171,977 worldwide) so far.

Just as he blamed the World Health Organization for not warning this country despite the fact that the majority of scientists there belong to the U.S.'s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nation's governors for asking for help in acquiring equipment to fight the outbreak, and egging on right-wing protesters to question their containment policies, Trump continues the effort to divert attention from his pathetic performance which has cost American lives during this crisis.

This year, more than 200,000 foreigners were scheduled to get temporary permits, known as H-2A visas, to work in agriculture from Florida to Washington and everywhere in between.

But after fears of the coronavirus pandemic soared in recent weeks,Trump decided on Monday (by Tweet) to close consulates like the one in Monterrey, N.L.— leaving American farmers scrambling and Mexican workers stranded at one of the busiest times of the season. He also said he was issuing an executive order today temporarily halting any immigration to this country.

“Without these workers, everything ceases to exist,” says Diane Kurrle, senior vice president of the U.S. Apple Association. The agriculture sector, she notes, “has become increasingly dependent” on the H2-A program—so much so that it’s doubled in the last five years.

In he Midwest, pig farmers are considering killing their herds because of the closing of restaurants and other chief customers.

The last straw was the closing of several processing plants in the Midwest after COVID-19 outbreaks decimated the workforce, often made up of immigrants on work permits from Africa, Southeast Asia, Mexico and Central America.

In one plant alone in South Dakota, 600 workers tested positive for the virus, effectively closing it.

This new Trump brainstorm comes at a time when the governor from the neighboring state of  Tamaulipas has sued the Mexican government for agreeing to allow the US. government to dump deportees who carried the virus contracted from U.S. cities, were dumped at the border, and later infected more than 50 Mexican citizens and other migrants.

In fact, mayors along the U.S.-Mexico border are asking that visitors from COVID-19-infected U.S. be prevented from crossing into Mexico.

Trump said that the move to temporarily suspend these workers is meant to protect American jobs. 

Let's see how many U.S. citizens flock to the fields to spend the days stooped over crops for less than the minimum wage. The farmers' crops will rot in the fields and the U.S. consumer will pay higher prices for produce. The COVID-19 rates will not go down. But the redneck voter in the swing states for his reelection will rejoice over his anti-immigrant stance.

Does he know one in four doctors in the United States fighting the COVID-19 are foreigners as are one in five nurses? Care to guess how many farm worker are foreign-born?