Democrats are once again slamming President Donald Trump following his decision to halt legal immigration into the United States temporarily and labeling his orders “xenophobic” and “racist.”

On Tuesday morning, White House’s press secretary confirmed President Trump’s tweet saying that in light of the attack of the coronavirus or the “invisible enemy,” he will be signing an Executive Order temporarily suspending immigration into the country.

“President Trump is committed to protecting the health and economic well-being of American citizens as we face unprecedented times,” the statement from the White House press secretary explained.

The president said that he pushed for the Executive Order to suspend immigration to “take care of the American workers” first. As the White House statement continued, “decades of immigration” have led to higher unemployment and lower wages for American citizens, especially for African-American and Latino workers. And now that we are in a time when Americans are in need of jobs, strong actions must be taken.

For multiple decades, the United States has been open to immigrants looking to work in our country, but as a result, as more immigrants flood the US, blue-collar workers drown in lower wages and lesser employment opportunities, especially in the fields of manufacturing, trucking, retail, construction, and the food industry. This workforce trend has pushed many blue-collar workers, especially Latinos and African-Americans, to vote for Trump in 2016.

Living up to his words, President Donald Trump came up with the “Buy American, Hire American” policy, which seeks to promote higher wages and employment opportunities for US citizens. In 2018 and 2019, blue-collar wages have seen a rapid increase due to Trump’s Hire American policy and partly because of his border policies.

The suspension will only last for 60 days, according to the president, and will only apply to workers seeking permanent residency. There are also exceptions to the executive order, like the farmers and healthcare or medical professionals. “I have determined that we cannot jumpstart the domestic economy if Americans are forced to compete against an artificially enlarged labor pool caused by the introduction of foreign workers,” Trump explained in the Executive Order draft.

However, staunch Democrats are quick to counter and comment against the president’s orders. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) tweeted that from the beginning, Trump has been looking for someone else to blame and that his Executive Order is just another way for him to pass it. He further labeled Trump’s decision as “xenophobic scapegoating.”

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who was the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee for Trump’s failed impeachment, also chimed in and claimed that the president seeks to distract citizens from his fumbled COVID-19 response by blaming immigrants. He continued his statements saying that “This is a disgrace—demonizing so many of those who are serving on the front lines against COVID while the president shows himself as small and ineffective.”

Economist David Rothschild also replied to the president’s tweet, saying, “We need testing. Not scapegoats,” and enumerated a list of groups the president allegedly blamed for the pandemic.

Failed presidential candidate Amy Klobuchar also weighed in on the issue and said that “as workers put their lives on the line, the president attacks immigrants & blames others for his own failures.”

Republicans like Rep. Josh Hawley (R-MO) expressed his support for the president’s decision, saying that the president made the right call.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a conservative activist group, also agreed with the president’s orders and called the Executive Order a “historic and needed protection” of our country.

Conservative commentator, Ryan Fournier even thanked the president and said that the order was also a great opportunity for the country to fix our broken immigration system.

Despite the expected negative reactions from the left, President Trump’s main goal in his Executive Order is to put American workers first in this time of global crisis. As Trump’s former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, the Executive Order is not really about immigration, but the ongoing pandemic and trying to keep our country safe and protecting job opportunities for unemployed Americans.