United States President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to temporarily suspend the approval of some green cards for the next 60 days, saying that the order will help protect the jobs of American workers amid the Covid-19 pandemic. President Trump stated that the order could be extended if necessary, and "will ensure that unemployed Americans of all backgrounds will be first in line for jobs as our economy reopens". However, some critics accuse President Trump for using the pandemic to instate controversial immigration policies in an election year.

The new measure temporarily suspends the Diversity Visa Lottery which issues about 50,000 green cards a year and is also expected to stop the sponsoring of extended families for permanent American residency by green card holders but makes exceptions for American citizens' spouses and unmarried children under 21 years-old, green card applicant already living and working in the United States, green card applicants looking to enter the nation to work within healthcare jobs, and those issued temporary guest visas through the H-1B visa program.

So far, the United States has seen about 26.4 million jobless claims since mid-March, accounting for about 15% of the nation's total workforce. Meanwhile, well over 800,000 confirmed cases of the Covid-19 coronavirus has been reported nation-wide alongside at least 44,000 Covid-19-related deaths.  

Note: The statistics for the Covid-19 in the United States was retrieved from the CDC (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/cases-in-us.html). However, the statistics differ on other reporting groups (For example, John Hopkins University (JHU) estimates well over 46,000 nation-wide deaths) (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6).