Reversing his stance on immigration, former US president Donald Trump has promised to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges to prevent them from returning to home countries like India and China where they are multibillionaires.
Mr. Trump’s departure from anti-immigrant rhetoric comes ahead of the November presidential election in which immigration and deportation of illegal immigrants are among the key issues for voters.
Mr. Trump, however, has always supported a merit-based legal immigration system.
Also Read | Visa politics: On Trump’s immigration policy
“What I want and what I’m going to do is – you graduate from college, I think you should automatically get a Green Card as part of your diploma, a Green Card to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges,” Mr. Trump said. , 78, on the “All-In” podcast.
A Green Card, officially known as a permanent resident card, is an identity document that shows a person is a permanent resident of the United States.
This podcast is hosted by four venture capitalists: Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg, all three of whom are immigrants.
Mr. Trump’s remarks came as he was urged by Calacanis to “promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest from around the world to America.” Mr. Trump, the presumptive candidate of the Republican Party, also lamented “the story where people graduated from the top college or from college, and they really wanted to stay here, they have a plan for a company, a concept, and they can. ‘t – he returned to India , back to China, they do the same basic company in the place.
“… and they became multi-billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people, and it could have been done here,” he said.
“Let me tell you that it’s very sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the biggest schools. and smaller schools that are also phenomenal schools. have to solve the problem of COVID because they came in and, you know, dominated for a while, as you know ,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump reiterated the policy of the first term, regarding foreign students getting a Green Card after receiving a degree from a higher education institution in the field of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
“Anyone who graduates from college, you go there for two years or four years, If you graduate or get a doctorate from college, you should be able to stay in this country,” Mr. Trump said.
“We’re pushing smart people, people who graduate college, people who are number one in their class from the best colleges, you have to be able to recruit these people and keep them,” he said.
Some graduated at the top of their class; they can’t even make a deal with the company because they don’t think they will be able to stay in the country.
“It’s going to be over in day one,” Mr. Trump announced.
According to the latest annual Open Doors report from the Institute of International Education more than one million international students from more than 210 places of origin are studying at US higher education institutions during the 2022-23 academic year.
China remains the top sending country in 2022/23, with 289,526 students studying in the U.S. But students from China saw a slight decrease of 0.2 percent compared to the previous year.
India, the second largest sending country, reached 268,923 international students in 2022/23, an increase of 35 percent compared to the previous year. Overall 53 percent of all international students in 2022/23 are from China and India, compared to the previous year.
However, the market share for each place of origin has shifted, with 27% of students from China and 25% of students from India, compared to 33% from China and 18% from India in 2017-18. Mr Trump’s latest comments differ from the immigration policies he adopted while in office and are a direct jab at the wealthy business leaders he loves as campaign donors and supporters. The New York Times said.
Mr. Trump has sometimes sought to reform the nation’s immigration system to reduce family-based immigration and prioritize immigrants who are wealthy, have valuable job skills or are well-educated.
But during his term as president, Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda included restrictions on green cards, visa programs, refugee resettlement and other forms of legal immigration, significantly reducing the number of permanent residents legally entering the country.
He began his presidency by signing an executive order banning travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries and then accepting a proposal to cut legal immigration in half.
During his presidency, Mr. Trump attacked the H-1B visa program, favored by tech companies as a way to hire foreign skilled workers, as “stealing America’s prosperity.” The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialized jobs that require theoretical or technical expertise.
Tech companies rely on hiring tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
Mr. Trump expanded restrictions on legal immigration during the pandemic and last year in office and has proposed suspending all immigration to the United States and deporting foreign students if they do not attend at least some classes.
A month before the 2020 election, Mr. Trump again moved to limit the H-1B visa program.