Donald Trump has unveiled his intentions to grant green cards to foreign graduates from US colleges, in an apparent softening of his typically hard-line view on immigration, which is deemed a key election issue at the moment.
He made this known to All-In podcast. “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,” Trump said.
A green card is the commonly used name for a permanent resident card in the United States and a step toward citizenship.
Trump says this should include “anybody who graduates from a college,” including those who complete two-year programs, known as junior colleges, and doctoral graduates.
Again he was asked on the podcast if he would promise to help import the “best and the brightest around the world to America,” Trump replies: “I do promise.”
He adds: “I know of stories where people graduated from a top college, or from a college, and they desperately want to stay here and they can’t.
“They go back to India, they go back to China. They do the same basic company in those places and they become multi billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people,” Trump says.
The Republican candidate makes this remarks in a podcast published, days after US President Joe Biden announced a citizenship pathway for immigrants married to US nationals, counterbalancing his recent crackdown on illegal border crossings.
The incumbent United States president had earlier on Tuesday announced a large-scale immigration program that will offer legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. residency and citizenship to roughly half a million unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens.
“For those wives or husbands and their children who have lived in America for a decade or more, but are undocumented, this action will allow them to file paperwork for legal status in the United States, allowing them to work while they remain with their families in the United States,” Mr. Biden said.
Mr. Biden announced the measure at a White House event on Tuesday marking the 12th anniversary of DACA, alongside another move to make it easier for employers to sponsor “Dreamers” and other undocumented immigrants for work visas.