In an apparent 180-degree turn, Donald Trump has gone from ensuring that he will carry out the largest deportation in the history of the United States if he is re-elected president in November to promising permanent residency to all foreigners who graduate from universities in the country. “What I want to do and what I will do is that if you graduate from a university, I think you should automatically get, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” he said in a podcast published this Thursday. A minute earlier, however, in the same interview he had already launched into his usual xenophobic speech, accusing immigrants of “invading” the United States after leaving “prisons,” “mental institutions” and “asylums.” “We have terrorists entering our country at a level we have never seen before,” he concluded.
The Republican Party candidate for this November specified that his proposal to grant green cards [permisos de residencia] would include “anyone who graduates from a university” and would address the issue on his first day as president. Trump made these statements in the All-In podcast in response to a question about his plans “to import the best and brightest from around the world to the United States.” The program is hosted by, among others, David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, two technology venture capitalists, who earlier this month hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco, at which the Republican raised about 12 millions of dollars. Tickets for the event sold for $50,000 per head, reaching $300,000 for those who wanted a photo with the former president.
His proposal contrasts with the incendiary anti-immigration rhetoric that the Republican has resorted to during the electoral campaign, also reflected in his own podcast. Trump has made migration a central axis of his campaign against President Joe Biden. He has promised to carry out “the largest internal deportation operation in US history” and has insulted migrants time and time again, calling them everything from “criminals” to “terrorists” and accusing them of endangering public safety. The former president has gone so far as to say that migrants are “poisoning the blood” of the country.
Hours after the episode of the podcastKaroline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, attempted to qualify the Republican’s proposal and indicated that graduates would be examined “to exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters” and “haters of America.” “President Trump has outlined the most aggressive vetting process in American history,” Leavitt added. “He believes that only after such vetting has been conducted should we retain the most qualified graduates who can make significant contributions to America. “This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never drive down American wages or workers.”
During the interview in All-InTrump assured that he is aware of people who graduate from some of the best universities and want to stay in the United States, but cannot obtain visas to do so, being forced to return to their countries of origin. “Someone graduates among the best in class and cannot even reach an agreement with a company because he does not believe he will be able to stay in the country. That will end on the first day,” he said.
The Republican added that these people continue their careers and become multimillionaires who employ thousands of people in countries like India and China. “You need a group of people who work for your companies and they have to be smart people,” he said. “You need brilliant people and we force brilliant people, people who graduate from college, people who are number one in their class at the best universities” to leave the United States. “You have to be able to recruit these people and retain them,” he concluded.
Everything Trump said contradicts his time as president, when he not only worked to stop illegal immigration, but also wanted to restrict legal entry routes. Immediately after assuming the presidency in 2017, Trump issued an executive order known as Buy American and Hire American (Buy what is made in the United States and hire Americans), through which it sought to prioritize the country’s workers and products. In addition, it temporarily suspended several visas, including the program that many technology companies use to bring in thousands of workers.
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