‘De Facto Amnesty’: Trump Sparks Fury On The Right By Adopting Hillary Clinton Plan to Give Green Cards to All College Graduates

Charlie NashJun 21st, 2024, 11:41 am
 

Former President Donald Trump received backlash from conservatives on Thursday after he vowed to give Green Cards to all foreign students who graduate college in the United States.

During an interview with Trump on The All-In Podcast, tech entrepreneur Jason Calacanis – who described the former president as “a grifter & a criminal” just last year – asked, “Can you please promise us you will give us more ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America?”

Trump replied, “I do promise, but I happen to agree. That’s why I promise, otherwise I wouldn’t promise. 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.”

He continued:

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 [permanent residency] to be able to stay in this country, and that includes junior colleges too. Anybody graduates from a collage, you go in there for two years or four years, if you graduate, or if you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country.

Trump argued, “You need a pool of people to be able to work for your companies. You have great companies and they have to be smart people. Not everybody can be less than smart, you need brilliant people,” before vowing to make the changes “on day one.” Trump’s proposal is similar to one that Hillary Clinton ran on in 2016.

Trump’s remarks received backlash from conservatives on social media, who protested that the policy was antithetical to Trump’s supposed America First agenda.

“This isn’t America First,” tweeted the U.S. Tech Workers organization. “Stapling a Green Card to a college diploma would incentivize universities to turn into de facto immigration centers — a problem both Canada and the UK are currently dealing with which has only led to voter backlash against immigration. It’s a terrible policy.”

American Conservative contributing editor Christopher Brunet protested Trump’s “terrible policy,” arguing it would result in the creation of “tons of fake diploma mills,” while Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec commented, “America has plenty of skilled workers who need better jobs… Americans come first.”

“I need Steven Miller to tattoo the actual immigration policy on the back of Trump’s hand,” mocked The Blaze host Auron MacIntyre, while The Blaze host and Turning Point USA contributor Lauren Chen tweeted, “This wasn’t it when it was first being discussed during the first term, and it sure as hell ain’t it in 2024.”

Conservative influencer John Cardillo was more direct, tweeting, “Trump is basically telling US citizen college grads to fuck off by giving green cards and the right to work in the US to non-citizens who also graduate. Not only isn’t this America First, this is as far left globalist as it gets.”

Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) also criticized Trump’s policy, before quietly deleting his post.

Following the backlash, Trump 2024 national press secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement claiming college students would first be “vetted” before being granted permanent residency as part of the controversial proposed policy.

“This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers,” she wrote.

However, critics accused Leavitt of performing “damage control.”

Watch above via The All-In Podcast.

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