The American dream as a reward for those who graduate from universities in the United States. It’s the latest proposal from Donald Trump who, with a twist of his own, went from a fiercely isolationist policy to the proposal to give green cards to foreigners who have completed a course of study in US colleges. To obtain the highly coveted residence permit and, above all, permanent work permit, a complicated and expensive process is usually required which can take years, unless you win the annual lottery or the company sponsors its employee. The tycoon’s idea, however, is that the green card is automatically awarded at the end of university. “I think a foreigner who graduates from a college here should automatically get, as part of their diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” the former president said on an episode of “The All-In Podcast.”
A project completely at odds with his anti-migrant rhetoric and initiatives – such as “the largest mass deportation plan in American history” which involves the expulsion of around 20 million people – and which has sparked anger of the most conservative Republicans. “If this absurd proposal were to pass, there would be an explosion of low-level Masters programs across the country which would become a way to sell green cards,” he attacked. Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies. “US immigration policy must serve the interests of all Americans, not CEOs looking for cheap labor,” added Chris Chmielenski, president of the conservative group Immigration Accountability Project. Trump’s plan, he insisted, “would reduce wages for Americans, increase job competition, particularly for recent college graduates, and pose a threat to national security.”
The spokeswoman for ‘The Donald’ campaign, Karoline Leavitt, attempted to calm the minds of Republican hawks by reassuring them that «on the first day of his presidency Trump will close the border as promised» and that foreign graduates will have to pass a «security check to exclude communists, Islamic fundamentalists, supporters of Hamas and all those who hate America.” “Only after such a review will we be able to determine who can stay to make a significant contribution to the United States,” he stressed. In all this, the foreigner market is not a new phenomenon in the United States.
Students from other countries are attractive to US universities because they are often forced to pay higher tuition and fees than Americans. According to a November report from the International Educational Exchange, there are more than one million foreign college students in the United States, of whom approximately 289,526 (27%) were from China and 268,923 (25%) from India, followed by South Korea ( 4.1%), Canada (2.6%), Vietnam (2.1%), Taiwan (2.1%), Nigeria (1.7%) and Japan (1.5%). A large group of people who, if Trump were elected and kept his promise, would have the possibility of settling permanently in the United States.