With immigration a key issue in the run-up to the November elections in the USA, ex-President Donald Trump has suggested that the American government should “automatically” grant permanent residence to foreign graduates of US universities.
When "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 in an interview with the All-In podcast, released on Thursday. The green card symbolises permanent residency in the US.
Fielding questions about immigration restrictions which, according to the interviewer, are limiting US competitiveness and the “ability to import the best and brightest to America,” the Republican presidential candidate referred to " stories where people graduated from a top college, and they desperately wanted to stay here, they had a plan for a company, a concept, 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, and it could have been done here,” he asserted.
His remarks contrast with his usual restrictive stance on immigration, and they come a few days after his Democratic rival proposed similar measures.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden announced plans to expedite work visa procedures for some immigrants who had received a university degree in the US and also had job offers in the country.
Biden also announced regularisation measures that could benefit hundreds of thousands of people.
“We can both secure the border (with Mexico) and provide legal pathways to citizenship,” the current US President said, defending his policy, which tries to be responsive to right-wing accusations of laxity while keeping to his campaign promises of a more “humane” immigration system.
The Democrat took the opportunity on Tuesday to lambast his predecessor, calling it “outrageous” to refer to migrants in a negative light.
In response, Trump’s campaign team, which has promised mass expulsions if victorious in the elections, insisted that Biden’s measures would “undoubtedly fuel migrant crime.”
