Former President Trump's campaign walked back a promise that the former president would “automatically” grant green cards to immigrants after they graduate from college.
“President Trump has made clear that on the first day of his new administration he will close the border and launch the largest mass deportation effort on illegal aliens in history,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 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.”
The comments come after Trump's appearance on the “All-in Podcast” last week, where the former president outlined an idea to give all foreign college graduates a green card along with their diploma.
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Former President Trump (Sean Rayford/Getty Images/File)
“If you graduate from a college, I think you should automatically get, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country, and that includes colleges as well,” Trump said during the appearance.
The proposal received immediate pushback: Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian told the New York Post that such a donation was “a crazy proposal” that would cause a “hose of foreign money” by “stapling a green card to the diploma”. ” from an American college graduate.
“If someone gets a doctorate from a university in a hard science, I will personally go to their house and give them a green card,” Krikorian said. “The problem is that any foreign university graduate, even from a bogus two-year master's program or gender studies [major]I would get a green card.”
Chris Chmielenski, president of the conservative Immigration Accountability Project, echoed the criticism, arguing that such a plan “would reduce wages for all Americans, increase job competition, particularly for recent college graduates, and pose a national security threat.” “.
Conservative critics lashed out at Trump's proposal. (Donald Trump 2024 Campaign/Archive)
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“American immigration policy must serve the interests of all Americans, not the interests of elite business leaders seeking cheap labor,” he said.
Meanwhile, Biden's campaign also took aim at the comments, telling Fox News Digital that his proposal represented an “empty promise,” especially for “the countless people who have been permanently harmed by his first term.”
“Every time Donald Trump came to power, he made it his mission to destroy immigrant families for his own political gain,” said campaign spokesman Kevin Muñoz. “He is also proudly running to go even further in a second term, not only openly echoing Nazi rhetoric around immigrants, but also promising cruel policies like rounding up immigrants and sending them to mass detention camps.”
president biden (Anna Moneymaker/Archive)
But Leavitt attempted to clarify the president's comments in his remarks, noting that such a program “would only apply to the most scrutinized college graduates who would never undermine American wages or workers.”
“He believes that only after that research has been conducted should we retain the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to the United States,” Leavitt said. “This would only apply to the most carefully vetted college graduates who would never undermine American wages or workers.”
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The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
