Trump launches green cards for non-citizen college graduates

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump suggested in a podcast released Thursday that non-U.S. citizens should “automatically” obtain green cards upon graduating from college.

“What I want to do and what I will do is, if you graduate from college, I think you should automatically get as part of your degree a green card so you can stay in this country,” Trump said. “And that includes junior colleges as well.”

Trump made similar comments during his 2016 campaign, only to limit legal migration when he was in office.

Trump’s response on the podcast came in response to a comment from one of the podcast’s hosts, who said that “we need highly skilled workers in this country.” Another chimed in, noting that three of the four hosts are immigrants.

“Can you please promise us that you will give us more ability to import the world’s best and brightest to America?” asked one host, prompting Trump’s green card response.

Trump said he promised that, adding that it was “very sad when we lost people from Harvard, from MIT, from the best schools and from smaller schools that are also phenomenal schools.”

NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for further comment on its position.

The former president’s comments came moments after Trump repeated his frequent baseless claim that migrants crossing the southern border into the US come from jails, prisons, mental institutions and mental institutions. He also claimed, without evidence, that “we have terrorists coming into our country at a level we have never seen before.”

During a 2016 Republican primary debate, Trump said “we need highly skilled people in this country” when asked about visas for highly skilled workers.

“They’re going to go to Harvard. They’re going to Stanford. They’re going to Wharton. As soon as they finish, they’re going to be kicked out,” Trump said in March 2016. “They want to stay in this country. They want to stay here desperately. They’re not able to stay here. , we absolutely have to be able to maintain brain power in this country.”

However, during Trump’s time in the Oval Office, visa denials and extensions increased, making it more difficult for some non-citizen workers to remain in the US.

In 2019, Trump established a merit-based legal immigration system to prioritize highly skilled migrants. But in 2020, Trump also signed an executive order that froze new visas for foreign workers.

Now campaigning for another term, Trump has frequently made anti-immigration rhetoric a centerpiece of his campaign speeches.

Trump compared migrants to Hannibal Lecter from the film “The Silence of the Lambs.” He claimed that migrants arriving in the US are “poisoning the blood of our country,” rhetoric that Biden’s campaign compared to that of Adolf Hitler. Last month, he claimed, without evidence, that migrants bring “very contagious diseases”.