The United States government has taken extreme actions to limit travel to the United States during the COVID-19 outbreak. Currently, the government has suspended nearly all legal immigration and travel to the United States and paused most legal immigration applications from immigrants inside the United States as well. It has reduced interior immigration enforcement, deportation court cases, and stopped deportations to three countries.
Below is a list of the dates of each action that it has taken, details of the action, and their effective dates. While the government is correct to reduce unnecessary travel at this time, it should not completely close off immigration because many immigrants are serving important roles in combating this epidemic. This post concludes with proposed actions that the government is considering.
David Bier, Timeline and List of U.S. Immigration Actions on COVID-19 Cato Institute (2020), https://www.cato.org/blog/timeline-list-us-immigration-actions-covid-19 (last visited Mar 23, 2020).