Foreign students who graduate from American universities should “automatically” receive a green card “as part” of their diplomas, former President Donald Trump said on Thursday.
Trump made the comment during an appearance on the “All-In” podcast, which is hosted by venture capitalists Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks, and David Friedberg. Trump’s support of giving foreign students more accessible paths to U.S. citizenship comes as he vows to crack down on the illegal immigration crisis that has ballooned under President Joe Biden. The former president sat down with the “All-In” hosts just two weeks after Sacks hosted a successful fundraiser for Trump at Sacks’ San Francisco home.
“Can you please promise us that you will give us more ability to the best and brightest from around the world to America?” entrepreneur and investor Jason Calacanis asked Trump during the interview.
“I do promise, but I happen to agree; that’s why I promise. Otherwise, I wouldn’t promise,” Trump replied. “Let me just tell you that it’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, from the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools also.”
“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, and that includes junior colleges too,” Trump added.
“I know of stories where people graduated from a top college or from a college, and they desperately wanted to stay here and had a plan for a company, a concept. And they can’t. They go back to India, they go back to China,” Trump said, adding, “Somebody graduates at the top of the class, they can’t even make a deal with a company because they don’t think they’re going to be able to stay in the country. That is going to end on day one.”
Some conservatives on social media criticized Trump’s promise to pursue action allowing foreign college graduates to “automatically” obtain a green card. Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) replied to Trump’s comment, simply writing on X, “Wrong.” Daily Wire host Matt Walsh also responded to Trump’s green card idea, writing, “Counterpoint: hell no.”
The Blaze host Steve Deace added, “He wants to give college grads who major in Hamas Studies green cards. Shoot me. Right in the face. With a nail gun. Point blank. And make sure all the nails are rusty with tetanus.”
Trump campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said after Trump’s interview that any green card program for college graduates would include an “aggressive vetting process” that would “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges,” The New York Times reported. She added that Trump’s idea would only apply to the “most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America.”
Trump has vowed to conduct the largest mass deportation of illegal immigrants in U.S. history if he is elected to a second term and suggested that he would use the National Guard to carry out the deportation program. The presumed Republican presidential nominee called the illegal immigration crisis “an invasion of our country.”
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