Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Trump to Temporarily Halt Immigration Into the U.S. Amid Coronavirus Crisis

Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Categories: ASCF News Economic Security Immigration

Comments: 0

President Trump said he plans to sign an executive order temporarily suspending immigration into the U.S., saying he was doing so to protect American jobs as the novel coronavirus has taken a sharp toll on the economy.

In a tweet Monday night, he said he was signing the executive order “in light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy”—a reference to the coronavirus—“as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens.” He didn’t provide further details.

Administration officials said the order wouldn’t make substantial changes to current U.S. policy. Even without an executive order, the administration has already all but ceased nearly every form of immigration. Most visa processing has been halted, meaning almost no one can apply for a visa to visit or move to the U.S. Visa interviews and citizenship ceremonies have been postponed and the refugee program paused, The Wall Street Journal has previously reported. Migrants caught crossing the border are now immediately expelled once they are found.

The executive order is expected to include exceptions for migrant farmworkers, who make up about a 10th of the workforce on U.S. farms, and health-care workers, particularly those helping treat coronavirus patients, an administration official said. It is not expected to address the removal of immigrants already in the U.S. or the visa renewal process, the official said.

As with past efforts by the president to curb immigration, the executive order will likely face legal challenges.

The president has already taken several steps to restrict who can enter the country as the coronavirus has spread around the globe. In January, he imposed entry restrictions on foreign nationals who had traveled anywhere in China within the previous two weeks. In March, he banned travel by foreign nationals from Europe to the U.S., with some exceptions.

Later that month, the administration used an emergency public-health law to effectively close the southern border to illegal border-crossers and asylum seekers, saying migrants posed an unknown coronavirus risk to the nation.

The outcome was one Mr. Trump and immigration hard-liners in his administration had long sought to achieve, and in announcing the policy, he suggested it might outlast his emergency declaration.

In recent weeks, a debate has unfolded inside the administration over how many migrant workers to allow into the U.S. under a separate seasonal program, known as H-2B. Typically, these workers take jobs that last a few months, at resorts, county fairs and landscaping companies, and the number of visas is capped at 66,000, though the Department of Homeland Security has the authority to issue extra visas if demand exceeds supply.

In March, DHS announced it would issue 35,000 extra H-2B visas, over the objections of senior White House adviser Stephen Miller and other immigration hard-liners.

As the coronavirus crisis worsened and millions of Americans lost their jobs, the agency announced it was putting the extra visas on hold. An administration official said the executive order would ensure these extra visas don’t become available.

At the same time, the administration has prioritized continuing to detain and deport unauthorized immigrants, holding about 32,000 in detention centers where the virus has infected at least 220 people, according to data published by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Other countries have also locked down their borders in light of the virus’s spread. The European Union last month imposed a 30-day entry ban on nonessential travel for non-EU citizens. Since late March, China has suspended entry for nearly all foreigners and limited international air routes to weekly flights.

The president’s announcement, suggesting he believes the coronavirus continues to pose a severe threat to the country, comes in contrast to his comments in the last several days, when he has laid out plans for how to reopen the country, indicating he believes the threat is dissipating. Last week, he began tweeting that several states, including Minnesota and Virginia, should “liberate” themselves.

Photo: The president has already taken several steps to restrict who can enter the country as the coronavirus has spread around the globe. Photo: Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-to-temporarily-halt-immigration-into-the-u-s-amid-coronavirus-crisis-11587436960?mod=hp_lead_pos2

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