美国人越来越支持对来自其他国家的移民实行重大限制，尤其是随着冠状病毒在全球范围内蔓延，美国人也越来越支持这种做法新闻周刊最近的民意调查显示。
《今日美国》和益普索3月10日至11日进行的一项民意调查发现，76%的美国人支持暂时停止来自当时受病毒影响的高风险国家的移民，如中国、韩国、伊朗和意大利。一个月后，4月9日至10日进行的同一项民意调查发现，79%接受调查的美国人表示，他们支持暂时停止所有移民，而不仅仅是来自高风险国家的移民。
这些数据与调查形成对比，调查记录了特朗普总统任期其他部分的美国人的态度——在Covid-19死亡和限制成为国家心理的一部分之前。
自1999年以来，盖洛普每年都对移民情绪进行监测，去年夏天发现，尽管35%的美国人说他们支持减少移民，但64%的人说他们支持将移民保持在当前水平或增加移民。
皮尤研究中心(Pew Research Center)近年来一直发现，超过60%的美国人表示，他们相信移民“因为他们的辛勤工作和才能”而增强了国家实力，而约30%的人表示，移民“是国家的负担，因为他们拿走了工作、住房和医疗保健。”这些数字几乎与1994年的调查结果完全相反，当时63%的人说移民是一种负担，31%的人说他们使国家受益。民意调查也有助于说明美国人对这个问题的态度是如何随着时间的推移而因当前事件而转变的。
周三晚上，唐纳德·特朗普总统预计将签署一项行政命令，禁止人们在60天内申请绿卡。该命令不会影响临时移民，如外来工人。在民主党人对特朗普应对危机的批评声中，特朗普首先停止了从中国到其他国家的旅行。当他在3月份关闭边境时，他说这个国家将“大部分，甚至更远，但大部分是在全球大流行期间”被关闭，因为“未经筛选”和“未经批准”的人进入这个国家。
目前还不清楚特朗普的临时命令会对个人意见产生什么影响——还没有民意调查公布这样的结果。但正如特朗普在担任总统期间经常说的那样，他可能最感兴趣的是凝聚自己的基础，给他们想要的东西。
特朗普周二表示:“通过暂停移民，我们将在美国重新开放时，帮助失业的美国人首先找到工作。”。“用从国外流入的新移民劳动力来代替被病毒解雇的美国人是错误和不公平的。我们必须首先照顾美国工人。”
民调显示，特朗普可能感兴趣的是不同的优先事项。例如，一月份皮尤研究中心的一项民意调查着眼于美国人认为特朗普和国会需要解决的政治优先事项。调查发现，尽管移民在经济、医疗保健、环境、社会保障、教育以及帮助穷人和有需要的人等问题上排名第九，但共和党人和那些倾向共和党的人在调查中将其列为仅次于经济和恐怖主义的第三大问题。
福克斯新闻的塔克·卡尔森是美国最有影响力的有线电视新闻主持人之一，尤其是帮助特朗普赢得总统大选的人和影响总统的人，在过去几周里，他每晚都在抱怨特朗普应该停止移民。
卡尔森本月早些时候说:“如果奥巴马总统能够无视现有的移民法并创建DACA，而且他做到了，那么现任总统当然有权削减合法移民以保护国家。”。"事实上，美国法律明确赋予他这项权利."
然而，特朗普的临时举措似乎并没有安抚卡尔森，后者辩称此举包含“大量例外”
“如果这一行政命令的目的是保护美国就业，也许还有另一个目的，但如果是为了保护美国就业，它失败了，”他周二晚上说。
特朗普对高调批评的回应是吹嘘边境实力。
“今天我将签署我的行政命令，禁止移民进入我们的国家，”他在周三早上的推特上写道。“与此同时，即使没有这一命令，我们的南部边境，在170英里的新边境墙和27，000名墨西哥士兵的大力帮助下，非常紧张——包括人口贩运！”
MOST AMERICANS NOW SUPPORT PAUSING ALL IMMIGRATION BECAUSE CORONAVIRUS CHANGED THEIR MINDS, POLLS SHOW
A mericans increasingly support major restrictions on immigration from other countries, particularly as the coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe, a Newsweek review of recent polls showed.
A USA Today/IPSOS poll conducted March 10-11 found that 76 percent of Americans supported a temporary stop to immigration from high-risk countries affected by the virus at the time, such China, South Korea, Iran, and Italy. One month later, the same poll conducted from April 9-10 found that 79 percent of Americans surveyed said they supported a temporary stop to all immigration, not just from high-risk countries.
Those figures contrast with surveys that captured Americans' attitudes during other parts of Trump's presidency—before Covid-19 deaths and restrictions were part of the national psyche.
Gallup, which has monitored sentiment yearly about immigration since 1999, last summer found that while 35 percent of Americans said they supported decreasing immigration, 64 percent said they supported keeping immigration at its current level or increasing it.
Pew Research Center has consistently found in recent years that more than 60 percent of Americans said they believe immigrants strengthen the country "because of their hard work and talents," while about 30 percent said that immigrants "are a burden on the country because they take jobs, housing and health care." Those numbers are almost exactly the opposite of its findings in 1994, when 63 percent said immigrants were a burden and 31 percent said they benefitted the country. The polls also serve to illustrate how Americans' attitudes about the subject shift over time due to current events.
On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order that bars people seeking green cards from the country for 60 days. The order will not affect temporary immigrants such as guest workers. Amid criticism from Democrats over his response to the crisis, Trump first moved to stop travel from China and then other countries. When he shut down the border in March, he said the country would be closed "mostly, and even beyond, but mostly during this global pandemic," because of "unscreened" and "unvetted" people entering the country.
It is not yet clear what effect Trump's temporary order will have on individuals' opinions—no polls have yet released such results. But as Trump has said often during his presidency, he may be most interested in rallying his base and giving them what they want from him.
"By pausing immigration, we'll help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens," Trump said Tuesday. "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans laid off by the virus to be replaced with new immigrant labor flown in from abroad. We must first take care of the American workers."
Polls have shown the differing priorities Trump may be interested in. For example, a January Pew Research Center poll looked at what Americans view as political priorities for Trump and Congress to address. It found that while immigration was ranked ninth, buried under issues such as the economy, health care, the environment, social security, education, and helping the poor and needy, Republicans and those who lean Republican who were polled ranked it their third most important issue behind the economy and terrorism.
Tucker Carlson of Fox News, one of the most influential cable news hosts in America—particularly with the people who helped Trump win the presidency, and someone who influences the president, has been railing nightly over the last few weeks that Trump should stop immigration.
"If President Obama was able to ignore existing immigration law and create DACA, and he did, then certainly the current president has the power to cut legal immigration in order to protect the nation," Carlson said earlier this month. "And, in fact, American law gives him explicitly this right."
Trump's temporary move, however, did not appear to assuage Carlson, who argued that it contained "an awful lot of exceptions."
"If the point of this executive order was to protect American jobs, maybe there was another point, but if it was to protect American jobs, it failed," he said Tuesday night.
Trump for his part responded to the high-profile criticism by touting border strength.
"I will be signing my Executive Order prohibiting immigration into our Country today," he tweeted early Wednesday morning. "In the meantime, even without this order, our Southern Border, aided substantially by the 170 miles of new Border Wall & 27,000 Mexican soldiers, is very tight - including for human trafficking!"
