restricted immigration amid the COVID-19 pandemic?

In April 2020, Trump announced a 60-day memorandum on immigration.

The order was limited to would-be immigrants living outside the country seeking a green card. It had some significant exceptions, like for the spouse or child of a citizen, military service members, and medical professionals. It did not affect anyone already within the United States.

Supporters of further immigration controls regarded the provisions as too limited, while immigration advocates worried that the 60-day period and those affected could be easily expanded.

A month after the order, the administration announced an expansion in an attempt to retain more jobs for citizens in the wake of COVID-19. The new regulations banned entry on certain visas through rest of the year, including including high-skilled H-1B visas. The order also had exceptions for agricultural, healthcare, and food industry workers.

Time – President Trump Has Blocked New Legal Immigrants. Here’s Where Else He’s Clamped Down on Immigration During the Coronavirus Outbreak
NBC News – Trump halts immigration for 60 days. Here’s what the president’s order means.
Texas Tribune – Trump signs order pausing immigration for 60 days, with exceptions
Los Angeles Times – Trump announces new visa restrictions on immigrant workers but exempts agriculture, food service, health

blamed Democrats for DACA’s demise?

When asked about DACA during the annual White House Easter Egg roll, Trump said,

The Democrats have really let them down. They really let them down. They had this great opportunity. The Democrats have really let them down. It’s a shame. And now people are taking advantage of DACA and that’s a shame.

Trump himself was responsible for ending DACA, though its phasing out has been held up in courts since.

The Wall Street Journal – Donald Trump Says DACA Is Dead Because Democrats ‘Didn’t Care’ 
Time – ‘The Democrats Have Really Let Them Down.’ President Trump Brought Politics to the White House Easter Egg Roll

announced that he would shut down DACA?

DACA, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was a program created by President Obama that allowed undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation. It also allowed those people to become eligible for a work permit if they had no felonies or only minor misdemeanors on their record. It included some 700,000 people.

In September of 2017, Trump’s administration announced that it would shut down the program.

Trump put the onus on Congress to decide whether or not to create a permanent version through legislation.

Congress failed to pass any legislation on the issue, but the phase-out of DACA was held up in courts, and is to be taken up by the US Supreme Court in 2020. Trump also later blamed Democrats for DACA’s demise.

The New York Times – Trump Moves to End DACA and Calls on Congress to Act
NPR – Trump Ends DACA, Calls On Congress To Act
Wikipedia – Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals

said the Pope would wish Trump were President when ISIS attacks the Vatican?

During a visit to Mexico, Pope Francis said in 2016 of Trump,

A person who thinks only about building walls, where they may be, not not building bridges, is not a Christian. This is not in the gospel. As far as what you said about whether to vote or not vote, I am not going to get involved in that. I only say that this man is not a Christian if he has said things like that.

In a retort, Trump said that the Pope was being manipulated by the Mexican government. He replied at a rally,

If and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, which as everyone knows is ISIS’s ultimate trophy, I can promise you that the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened.

Trump has repeatedly referred to himself as a Christian, though he was unable to recite a single verse from the Bible. He also had fairly positive views of Pope Francis upon the pope’s election.

In another tweet, Trump linked the humbleness of the Pope to his own. Trump also bragged about his own humility during the 2016 campaign.

Pope Francis’ views of Trump continued to be more mixed.

Trump visits the Pope at the Vatican, May 24, 2017. EVAN VUCCI/AFP/Getty Images

During a 2017 visit to the Vatican that was described as “stiff,” Pope Francis gifted Trump with copies of his writings, including an encyclical on climate change. Trump has derided climate change as a Chinese hoax.

Pope Francis also criticized Trump’s border and family separation policy, comparing it to the Berlin Wall.

It falls into the greatest cruelty. To defend what? The territory, or the economy of the country, or who knows what? We already know one wall, the Berlin Wall that brought us enough headaches and enough suffering…. But it seems that man does what animals do not do, doesn’t it? Man is the only animal that falls twice into the same hole.

On Trump’s move to repeal DACA, the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Pope Francis said,

The president of the United States presents himself as pro-life and if he is a good pro-lifer, he understands that family is the cradle of life and its unity must be protected.

The Hill – Pope Francis appears to knock Trump with appeal to build bridges instead of walls
NPR – ‘He Is Something’: Trump Visits Pope Francis At The Vatican
America Magazine – Pope Francis calls Trump’s border policy ‘cruel,’ compares southern barriers to Berlin Wall
CNN – Pope Francis says rescinding DACA is not ‘pro-life’

justified voter ID laws by claiming that you need ID to buy groceries?

His complete remarks were,

“We believe that only American citizens should vote in American elections. Which is why the time has come for voter ID, like everything else. Voter ID. You know, if you go out and you want to buy groceries, you need a picture on a card, you need ID. You go out and you want to buy anything, you need ID and you need your picture. In this country, the only time you don’t need it, in many cases, is when you want to vote for a President, when you want to vote for a Senator, or a governor or Congressmen, it’s crazy. It’s crazy.”

Critics of voter ID laws often describe legislation as attempts to suppress voters. Trump has also claimed that he only lost the 2016 popular vote because of widespread voter fraud. Despite creating a commission to investigate, no evidence has been found. Years later, amid the COVID19 pandemic, Trump asserted that efforts to fund mail-in voting meant no Republican would again be elected.

At the same rally, Trump claimed that he could be more Presidential than anyone “except for maybe Abe Lincoln with the big hat.”

Associated Press – Promoting voter ID, Trump claims ID needed to buy groceries
The New York Times – Trump Says You Need an ID to Buy Groceries. Shoppers Say, ‘Huh?’
Time – President Trump Said ‘You Need an ID to Buy Groceries.’ The Internet Went to Town
USA Today – Trump Claims Americans Need ID to Buy Groceries

ignored a group of physicians who offered to provide free flu shots to detained immigrants?

Three children, aged 2, 6, and 16, had already died of the flu in US custody at the time the offer was made. U.S. Customs and Border Protection have since said that there would be no plans to vaccinate those in their custody.

Newsweek – Trump administration ignored offer of free fly clinic for migrants despite child deaths, physicians say
CNBC – The US won’t provide flu vaccines to migrant families at border detention camps

said that he was building a wall in Colorado, which shares no border with Mexico?

“We’re building a wall in Colorado…We’re building a beautiful wall,” Trump said during a speech in Pittsburgh. He had been listening multiple states in which new walls were being erected. He later claimed that he was joking. Border officials also confirmed that no new segments of wall had been built, and that it only extended to areas where prior wall or fencing already existed.

The New York Times – Trump Mentions a Wall in Colorado, Then Says He Was Kidding
CNN – Trump claims US is building border wall … in Colorado
The National Memo – Border Officials Confirm: Government Has Built No New Wall

pardoned Joe Arpaio, who was convicted for illegally detaining immigrants?

The former Arizona sheriff had become infamous for running Tent City, known for its harsh conditions and being what Arpaio himself referred to as “a concentration camp.” The resources put into detaining immigrants also sapped county resources, leading to a backlog of various other violent crimes.

Arpaio was convicted of contempt for violating a judge’s order preventing him from detaining immigrants based on racial profiling and their legal status. Though he was unlikely to serve any jail time, Trump issued a pardon. The pardon was controversial in how it eschewed tradition, including any layers of review or even a formal application by Arpaio.

Arpaio later ran for US Senate, but lost the primary. In an interview during his campaign, he seemed to be unaware that acceptance of a pardon is tantamount to an admission of guilt, per the US Supreme Court finding in Burdick v. United States.

USA Today – Analysis: Trump’s bold Joe Arpaio pardon breaks with presidential tradition
The New York Times – Trump Pardons Joe Arpaio, Who Became Face of Crackdown on Illegal Immigration
NPR – Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Under Fire For Mishandled Sex-Crime Cases
Wikipedia – Burdick v. United States
Wikipedia – Pardon of Joe Arpaio
Wikipedia – Joe Arpaio

said, “nobody knows the system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me”?

Trump made the statement at a Republican debate in Miami in March 2016.

TAPPER: Why should voters trust that you will run the country differently from how you run your businesses?

TRUMP: Because nobody knows the system better than me. I know the H1B. I know the H2B. Nobody knows it better than me. I’m a businessman. These are laws. These are regulations. These are rules. We’re allowed to do it. And frankly, because of the devaluations that other countries – the monetary devaluations that other countries are constantly doing and brilliantly doing against us, it’s very, very hard for our companies in this country, in our country, to compete.
So I will take advantage of it; they’re the laws. But I’m the one that knows how to change it. Nobody else on this dais knows how to change it like I do, believe me.

CNN – Transcript of Republican debate in Miami, full text

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