Donald Trump says he would grant green cards to foreign graduates of US colleges

Former US president and Republican candidate Donald Trump has said that he will grant green cards to foreign graduates of US colleges if he is re-elected in the upcoming elections.

This is an unanticipated move by the top Republican politician considering his hardline rhetoric on immigration.

While appearing for a podcast interview with Silicon Valley tech investors, Trump promised to make it convenient to bring talent to the US and said anyone who graduates from a US college should be able to stay in the country, Al Jazeera reported.

“It’s so sad when we lose people from Harvard, MIT, the greatest schools, and lesser schools that are phenomenal schools also,” he said during an appearance on the All-In Podcast hosted by Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, David Sacks and David Friedberg.

“I think you should get, automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country and that includes junior colleges, too,” he added.

Individuals are given the right to live and work permanently in the US by a green card and it also offers a pathway to citizenship.

A sharp departure from the hard-line positions on immigration that advanced his rise within the Republican Party has been marked by this proposal of his, which could create potentially hundreds of thousands of new citizenship applicants each year.

Notably, the Republican candidate has pledged to undertake the largest deportation of undocumented migrants in US history if he gets reelected in November.

He also once claimed that migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country”. Moreover, he has repeatedly attacked his Democratic rival, President Joe Biden, for being soft on immigration.

According to estimates by the Department of Homeland Security, some 11 million migrants are residing in the US without authorisation.