Donald Trump Floats ‘Automatic Green Cards’ For Indian Graduates Amid U.S. Presidential Election Campaign

Ex-US President Donald Trump seems to have changed his mind about the immigration policy just ahead of the upcoming US presidential election in 2024. He has proposed an automatic green card’ for students of foreign origins graduating from US colleges. In a podcast, Trump stressed on the retention of talent in the US and expressed support for linking Green Cards to diploma awards.

Trumps Changing Stance

He iterated that a lot of potential is lost from the country when educated individuals return to their home countries and start something that could have thrived in the US.

“What I want to do and what I will do is –you graduate from a college, I think you should get a Green Card automatically as part of your diploma, a Green Card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges too,” Trump, 78, said in the “All-In” podcast.

Donald Trump’s remarks came as he was pressed by Calacanis to “promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America.”

Donald Trump also lamented “stories where people graduated from a top college or from a 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.

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“…and they become multi-billionaires employing thousands and thousands of people, and it could have been done here,” he said.

“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. And what I wanted to do, and I would have done this, but then we had to solve the COVID problem because that came in and, you know, sort of dominated for a little while, as you perhaps know,” Trump said in response.

Merit-Based Immigration

Trump’s address showcases a departure from his past stance on immigration and puts an emphasis on merit merit-based immigration system that would attract and retain skilled individuals. He also noted the distress of top university graduates who have to struggle to get US residency, regardless of their academic accolades and potential contributions that could have been extracted.

Past Rhetoric

While he was the President, Donald Trump implemented sweeping immigration reforms, sharply restricting green card and visa programs. His scrutiny of the H-1B visa, pivotal for tech companies employing skilled foreign workers, sparked debates over its impact on American interests.

Trump wants to recruit and retain top talent in America and his emphasis on granting automatic green cards to STEM graduates echo’s his stance. These measures are in stark contrast with his previous measures such as the travel ban that predominantly targeted Muslim countries and similar efforts to contain legal immigration.

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