Trump floats idea to give foreign graduates in the US a green card

Former President Donald Trump suggested on Thursday that foreign students who graduate from college in the United States should receive a green card so they can stay in the country.

"You graduate from a college, 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," Trump said in an episode on the All-In podcast, which is hosted by several venture capitalists. He floated the idea after being asked by a host if he would promise to "give us ability to import the best and brightest around the world to America."

The former president has used harsh rhetoric about illegal immigration, oftentimes at campaign rallies, and recently criticized President Joe Biden on his efforts to decrease the number of migrants crossing the border illegally.

Trump is known to have a hardline stance on immigration and promised that if he’s reelected he’ll carry out mass deportations, end birthright citizenship and reinstitute his prohibition on people entering the U.S. from certain Muslim-majority nations. Before Trump was president, he consistently promised to build a border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border ,although only 452 miles of the wall was built by the time he left office.

It’s unclear if Trump’s suggestion on Thursday also applies to those who came to the country illegally.

“I know of stories where people graduated from a top college or from college, and they desperately wanted to stay here and had a plan for a company, a concept. And they can't,” Trump said. “Somebody graduates at the top of the class, they can't even make a deal with a company because they don't think they're going to be able to stay in the country. That is going to end on day one.”