In the name of American workers! Trump announces partial curbs on immigration

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump Tuesday announced partial curbs on immigration to "protect American workers" amid the economic carnage of the coronavirus pandemic.

As Trump announced a 60-day pause in the issuing of "green cards" to people seeking permanent residency in the US, the United Nations warned that the virus could trigger famine in already vulnerable countries.

The bleak warning came as deaths from the virus surpassed 177,000 worldwide, with governments anxiously trying to chart a path out of the unprecedented global health and economic emergency.

On the medical front, a US study of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, widely touted as a potential cure for COVID-19, showed no benefit against the disease over standard care -- and was in fact associated with more deaths.

Governments are also concerned about the mounting economic costs, and Trump announced that he would sign an executive order on Wednesday restricting immigration to the United States, where some 22 million people have lost their jobs.

Trump, who campaigned for president on a platform of cracking down on illegal immigration, said there would be a 60-day "pause" in issuing green cards, but temporary workers such as seasonal farm laborers would not be affected.

"In order to protect American workers, I will be issuing a temporary suspension of immigration into the United States," he said. "It will help put unemployed Americans first in line for jobs as America reopens," Trump said at a daily White House briefing. "It would be wrong and unjust for Americans to be replaced with immigrant labor flown in from abroad."

Trump said "additional immigration-related measures" could be taken later to protect workers in the United States, the hardest-hit country with nearly 45,000 people dead and more than 800,000 infected.

The UN´s World Food Program warned meanwhile that the economic impact of the pandemic could lead to a "humanitarian catastrophe," with the number of people suffering from acute hunger projected to nearly double to 265 million this year. "We are on the brink of a hunger pandemic," WFP director David Beasley told the UN Security Council in a video conference.