Washington, D.C. –Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and Immigration and Citizenship Chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) released the following statement on President Trump's executive order pausing immigration for 60 days:
"As we predicted based on his earlier tweet, Trump’s executive order is simply meant to divide and distract us from his tragic failure to effectively combat the spread of COVID-19 in the United States. He should be uniting us as a country as we continue to battle the deadly disease, not trying to shift blame and scapegoat immigrants.
"Make no mistake: this executive order is not about protecting American workers. The only thing it really accomplishes is keeping families apart. It is just an excuse to advance President Trump’s and Stephen Miller’s anti-immigrant agenda.
"The order is also an illegal and shocking usurpation of power. Under our Constitution, Congress writes the laws, and the President must enforce them as written.This executive order turns that bedrock principle of separation of powers on its head."