Donald Trump’s campaign is walking back a promise from the former president that he would automatically give green cards to all overseas students studying in the US once they graduate.
Speaking on The All-In Podcast on Thursday, Trump said: “What I want to do, and what I will do, is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country.”
That move wouldn’t only apply to graduates of four-year universities either, Trump clarified.
“That includes junior colleges too. Anybody graduates from a college — you go in there for two years or four years. If you graduate, or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country.”
The campaign is now emphasizing a strict vetting process as part of the plan after the idea received immediate pushback.
Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian told The New York Post that it was “a cockamamie proposal”.
“If someone earns a PhD at a university in a hard science, I personally will drive to their house and give them a green card,” Krikorian said.
“The issue is any foreign college graduate, even from a bogus two-year master’s program or gender studies, would get a green card.”
Fox News reports Chris Chmielenski, president of the conservative Immigration Accountability Project, as saying that the plan “would reduce wages for all Americans, increase job competition, particularly for recent college graduates, and pose a national security threat”.
“US immigration policy must serve the interests of all Americans, not the interests of elite business leaders who seek cheap labor.”
Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to media outlets: “President Trump has made it clear that on day one of his new administration, he’s going to shut down the border and launch the largest mass deportation effort of illegal aliens in history.”
She also said that Trump’s green card proposal would also include an “aggressive vetting process” that would “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters, and public charges.”
Leavitt continued: “He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America. This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
The former president made the comment after one of the podcast’s hosts, investor Jason Calacanis, asked him: “Can you please promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest from around the world to America?”
Trump expressed his frustration over how some US graduates leave the country and start businesses in China or India because they’re unable to obtain visas to stay.
