Trump promises green cards to international students after graduation – Kashmir Reader

WASHINGTON: Former US President Donald Trump said that if re-elected, his administration would pursue a program to automatically award Green Cards to international students after graduating from US colleges and universities.
Students from India, which is the second largest source of international students, will be the biggest beneficiaries if Trump is indeed re-elected and fulfills his promise.
Together with students from China, the main source country, they make up 53 percent of all international students admitted in 2023.
Trump’s campaign has already walked back the former president’s remarks, saying the program will use an “aggressive vetting process” shortly thereafter to keep out “all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public prosecutors (poor foreigners who are unable to fend for themselves themselves and need a government).
Trump’s remarks came Thursday on a podcast with two Silicon Valley investors. When asked about his promise to bring the best and brightest from around the world to America, he said: “I promise, but I happen to agree.”
“What I will do is this: if you graduate from higher education, I think you should automatically receive a Green Card as part of your diploma to be able to stay in this country, and that also applies to junior high schools.”
The Green Card allows its holder to permanently reside and work in the USA – Permanent Residency – and is one step closer to full citizenship. The United States awards an estimated 1 million Green Cards annually and admits 1 million international students each year, mostly from China and India.
If the former president actually keeps this promise, if elected, it would mean a significant expansion of the program, doubling the number of Green Cards issued annually.
But the big question is whether he will actually keep that promise.
During his term in office from 2017 to 2021, his administration attempted to restrict immigrant admissions and, in fact, targeted Indians coming to the US on short-term nonimmigrant H-1B work visas. Before taking office, he supported the H-1B program.
The vast majority of Indian students in American schools and colleges work for American companies on H-1B visas and then apply for green cards and citizenship. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen are prominent examples. To get a Green Card, international students must pass the H-1B or other work visa phase. Former President Trump promises to remove this step and grant foreign students a Green Card along with their diplomas.
Agencies

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