Donald Trump has received backlash from a number of supporters after the former president suggested foreign students graduating from U.S. colleges should get a green card.
Speaking on the All-In Podcast, the Republican presidential hopeful known for his hard-line immigration policies described a plan to help the United States import and retain high-skilled workers.
“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. “And that includes junior colleges, too.”
A green card, also known as a permanent resident card, allows individuals to live and work permanently in the United States and is a major step toward citizenship. A similar proposal to allow students who graduate with master’s and Ph.D. degrees in STEM subjects was previously promoted by Trump’s 2016 Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
“Stapling green cards to college degrees is a bad idea from Trump,” conservative commenter Ashley St. Clair said on X, formerly Twitter.
“Why would we make citizenship contingent on graduation from captured institutions where kids are taught to not only hate America + the West, but that there is a moral imperative to dismantle both? We need great talent to come here legally, but guaranteeing citizenship through completely captured institutions is not the way!”
Jack Posobiec, a far-right figurehead, wrote on X, “America has plenty of skilled workers who need better jobs. Americans come first.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Racine, Wisconsin, on June 18. Trump received backlash for suggesting foreign students graduating from a U.S. college should get a green card. Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign event in Racine, Wisconsin, on June 18. Trump received backlash for suggesting foreign students graduating from a U.S. college should get a green card. JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images
Right-wing YouTuber Charles J. Svestka posted, “Trump is (hopefully) misleading us with the green card stuff, to deflate the issue. I can’t see him actually going through with that proposal. If we the people wanted that, Tim Scott would be the Nominee.”
Elsewhere, Jeremy Beck, vice president of NumbersUSA, an advocate group calling for further restrictions on immigration, said Trump’s green card idea takes the already existing system and “[puts] it on steroids.”
“You’d turn colleges into visa mills,” Beck told The Washington Post.
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, clarified that the former president’s proposals would also include “the most aggressive vetting process in U.S. history, to 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 told Newsweek.
“This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, described being surprised that Trump would suggest offering green cards to foreign graduates.
“I almost have to laugh because his administration adopted multiple policies aiming to restrict student visas and make it harder for people to stay in the country after graduating,” Reichlin-Melnick told Reuters.
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