Former President Donald Trump recently proposed granting green cards automatically to foreign nationals who graduate from US colleges, marking a significant departure from his previous stance on immigration. This suggestion stands in stark contrast to his well-known efforts to curb both legal and illegal immigration while he was in office and opposes his often-inflammatory anti-immigrant rhetoric seen on the campaign trail.
In a statement on “The All-In Podcast,” which aired on Thursday, Trump elaborated, “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.” He continued, “And 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.”
Trump’s comments came during a discussion with the podcast’s hosts, including prominent tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, who recently hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco. The former president was responding to a query from another host, investor Jason Calacanis, who asked, “Can you please promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest from around the world to America?”
Addressing concerns about potential security risks, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt clarified that graduates would undergo stringent screening. “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,” Leavitt said in a statement to CNN. She further emphasized that the screening process would “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.”
Immigration remains a central focus of Trump’s 2024 presidential bid. He has promised to execute “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history,” using the issue to criticize President Joe Biden’s leadership. Trump’s latest comments follow Biden’s recent executive action allowing certain undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without leaving the country. This move, intended to appeal to Latino voters in battleground states, came after a more restrictive measure earlier this month to limit asylum processing at the US southern border.
On the podcast, Trump lamented the loss of foreign graduates from top US colleges who cannot start companies in the US and instead establish their businesses in countries like India or China. He remarked, “You need a pool of people to work for your companies and they have to be smart people. … You need brilliant people and we force the brilliant people, the people that graduate from college, the people that are number one in their class from the best colleges. You have to be able to recruit these people and keep the people.”
These remarks are notably different from Trump’s efforts to limit immigration during his presidency. His administration targeted visa programs that tech companies use to bring in skilled workers and directed federal agencies to follow a “Buy American, Hire American” strategy, promoting the hiring of American workers. Trump also attempted to restrict refugee resettlement and implemented a temporary travel ban from seven Muslim-majority countries.
During his current presidential campaign, Trump often incites fear about undocumented migrants, claiming without evidence that the majority are violent criminals, and frequently criticizing Biden’s immigration policies. His language has drawn strong reactions, especially his statement that undocumented immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
Despite his recent comments, Trump’s stance on foreign graduates is not entirely new. When he ran for president in 2015, he expressed support for providing a pathway to citizenship for some foreign nationals graduating from US colleges. In an interview with Time magazine, he said, “I also want people of great talent to come to this country, to Silicon Valley for engineers. If you go to Harvard and you graduate No. 1 in your class, and you’re from China, they send you home, you can’t get back into the country. So you end up working for companies in China and fighting us.”
Trump’s proposal to automatically grant green cards to college graduates represents a significant shift from his previous policies and rhetoric. While he maintains a hardline stance on immigration, his acknowledgment of the need to retain skilled graduates indicates a more nuanced approach. His campaign’s emphasis on thorough vetting suggests an attempt to balance national security concerns with the economic benefits of retaining top talent.
The suggestion to offer green cards as part of a diploma package could appeal to tech industry leaders and businesses seeking skilled workers. It highlights the economic rationale behind retaining educated individuals who can contribute to innovation and competitiveness. However, the proposal also raises questions about how it will be implemented and the potential impact on American workers.
As Trump continues his campaign, his evolving views on immigration will likely remain a focal point of debate. His proposal underscores the complexity of immigration policy and the challenges of balancing security, economic needs, and humanitarian considerations. Whether this shift will resonate with voters or lead to tangible policy changes remains to be seen. Nonetheless, Trump’s comments mark a notable departure from his earlier positions and add a new dimension to the ongoing discussion about immigration in the United States.