Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has recently backtracked on a bold promise to automatically award green cards to migrants who graduate from U.S. colleges. This idea was floated by Trump during an appearance on the “All-in Podcast,” where he suggested that foreign graduates should receive a green card alongside their diploma, including those from junior colleges.
“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.
Donald Trump says that anyone who graduates from an American college should be given a green card:
“If 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.”pic.twitter.com/ONdup55OEr
— The American Conservative (@amconmag) June 21, 2024
However, the proposal quickly faced significant backlash. Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian criticized it as a “cockamamie proposal,” arguing it would lead to a flood of foreign cash into U.S. colleges, essentially “stapling a green card to the diploma” of any graduate, regardless of their field of study or the quality of their degree program.
“If someone earns a Ph.D. in a hard science, I personally will drive to their house and give them a green card,” Krikorian remarked. “But the issue is any foreign college graduate, even from a dubious two-year master’s program or a gender studies major, would get a green card.”
Chris Chmielenski, president of the conservative Immigration Accountability Project, echoed these concerns, warning that the plan would reduce wages for Americans, increase job competition, particularly for recent graduates, and pose national security risks.
“U.S. immigration policy must serve the interests of all Americans, not the interests of elite business leaders who seek cheap labor,” Chmielenski said.
The Biden campaign also weighed in, describing Trump’s proposal as an “empty promise” and criticizing his first-term immigration policies, which they argued caused significant harm to immigrant families.
“Every chance Donald Trump got in office, he made it his mission to rip apart immigrant families for his own political gain,” campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. “He’s also proudly running to go even further in a second term, not only by openly echoing Nazi rhetoric around immigrants but also by promising cruel policies like rounding up immigrants and putting them into mass detention camps.”
In response to the criticism, Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt issued a statement clarifying the president’s remarks. She emphasized that any green card program would involve an “aggressive vetting process” and exclude individuals such as communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters, and those likely to become public charges.
“President Trump has made it clear that on day one of his new administration, he’s going to shut down the border and launch the largest mass deportation effort of illegal aliens in history,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement last week, according to a New York Post report, noting that the former president would include an “aggressive vetting process” and “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters, and public charges.”
“He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” Leavitt said. “This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
