Trump will give green cards to foreign graduates of US colleges
Former US President Donald Trump said he would automatically grant green cards to foreign graduates of US colleges if re-elected, a surprise shift from the Republican known for his hard-line stance on immigration. During a podcast interview with Silicon Valley tech investors on Thursday, Trump promised to make it easier to bring talent to the United States and said anyone who graduates from an American college should be able to stay in the country.
It’s unfortunate when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the most excellent schools, and smaller schools that are also great schools,” Trump said during an appearance on the All-In Podcast hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Kalakanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg.
I think you should automatically, as part of your degree, get a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior college as well,” Trump added. A green card gives individuals the right to live and work permanently in the United States and provides a path to citizenship.
Trump’s proposal, which would create hundreds of thousands of new applicants for citizenship each year, represents a sharp departure from the hard-line immigration rhetoric that has propelled his rise within the Republican Party.
Trump, who once claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” has vowed to carry out the largest deportation of illegal immigrants in US history and has repeatedly attacked his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, as soft on immigration.
At a campaign event in Wisconsin on Tuesday, Trump strongly criticized Biden’s announcement this week of a program that will allow spouses of illegal US citizens to apply for permanent residency without having to leave the country. Our country is being invaded. We shouldn’t be talking about amnesty; we should be talking about stopping the invasion instead, Trump said.
According to estimates from the Department of Homeland Security, about 11 million immigrants live in the United States without authorization. Although Trump has directed much of his anger toward illegal immigration, he has sharply reduced legal immigration while in office.
According to an analysis by the Cato Institute, the Trump administration reduced the number of green cards and immigrant visas by 418,453 and 11,178,668, respectively. However, most of the decline was due to restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. During an appearance on the All-In Podcast, Trump said the pandemic had disrupted his plans to hand out green cards to foreign graduates.
I know stories of people graduating from prestigious colleges or universities who wanted so badly to stay here. Trump said they had a plan for a company, a concept, but they couldn’t do it. They went back to India, they went back to China, they did the same essential company in those places, and they became billionaires who employed thousands and thousands of people, and they could have done it here.
