Last Updated on April 22, 2020
In Wednesday’s night monologue on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson provided some scathing criticisms of President Donald Trump’s watered down, corporate-friendly executive order on immigration.
Carlson began the segment by praising Trump for the original draft of the executive order, which halted several guest worker visa programs, noting such an action would have been “a big help for our hurting country.”
The television host listed the massive benefits in term of job openings for Americans that would have resulted if the original draft had been signed, before going on to contrast with the version Trump signed on Wednesday.
“Unfortunately, something happened to that executive order on the way to being signed by the President. The final version, signed just hours ago, does not restrict any foreign workers at all,” Carlson noted. “All of them are free to keep coming here and keep taking American jobs, including high-paying American jobs.”
Carlson pointed out that the order does not restrict work visas for foreign nationals, and affects a negligible, number of green card applications.
“Only five to eighty thousand green card applications may be affected by this, that’s less than ten percent of the one million people who get lawful permanent resident residency in this country every year. So for many of these, it will amount to nothing more than a temporary delay in the handling of their application,” Carlson said.
Tucker Carlson slammed President Trump's weak executive order that will only prevent 10% of immigrants from entering America, failing to protect American jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/IzsBOnqvRH
— National File (@NationalFile) April 23, 2020
“How did we get from a sincere effort… to help suffering American workers, to what we have now, which is a hollow, almost entirely symbolic gesture?” Carlson asked rhetorically. “Apparently, key White House aides were afraid of angering corporate leaders, for example, Apple CEO Tim Cook. Someone actually said that: ‘What would Tim Cook think?'”
Carlson continued, “Officials from the Department of Labor and the Council of Economic Advisors pushed for the vast guest worker exemption. They argued that the unemployment benefits in the coronavirus stimulus bill were so generous that American citizens would refuse to go back to work… and so we have to bring in more foreigners. In other words, welfare for you, real jobs for foreign nationals.
The full video can be seen below.
Wow! Tucker On How We Got Trump's Current Immigration EO
"The original one would have suspended several guest worker programs, the ones that prevent qualified Americans from getting jobs."
"The final version, signed just hours ago, doesn't restrict any foreign workers at all." pic.twitter.com/Yrw2lz4RE0
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) April 23, 2020
