This editorial board has long been critical of Donald Trump’s stances on immigration policy. However, the former president recently described a policy idea that makes perfect sense.
During a discussion with the business and technology-focused All-In podcast, Trump expressed perhaps his most pro-immigration idea to date.
“What I want to do and what I will do is, 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,” he said. “And that includes junior colleges, too. Anybody graduates from a college, you go in there for two years or four years. If you graduate or you get a doctorate degree from a college, you should be able to stay in this country.”
He continued, “I know of stories where people graduated … from a college, and they desperately wanted to stay here. They had a plan for a company, or a concept, and they can’t. They go back to India, they go back to China. They do the same basic company in those places, and they become multi-billionaires, employing thousands and thousands of people. And it could have been done here.”
What Trump said is a perfectly reasonable idea. The fact is that America needs more immigrants. Population growth is essential to economic prosperity and population growth is projected to slow for decades to come. Immigrants who are willing and able to do the right thing and invest in skills and knowledge at American schools should be able to stay and make something of themselves here in the United States. Educating immigrants only to make it hard for them to stay legally is economically counterproductive.
What Trump said would of course be a very streamlined and efficient way of doing things. Which is precisely why many in his own political base reacted so negatively to his remarks in the time that followed.
One of his campaign spokespeople, Karoline Leavitt issued a clunky and uninspired statement trying to walk back Trump’s remarks, saying there would be an “aggressive vetting process.”
“He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America,” she said. “This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.”
The repetitive use of “vetting” — in other words, throwing bureaucratic hoops in the way of immigrants in hopes most can’t make it or don’t bother trying in the first place — is exactly what immigration restrictionists want. But that’s not what Trump focused on. He focused on the practical need for more immigrants and outlined a sensible way of “vetting” them.
As far as we’re concerned, Trump had it right. Those concerned about illegal immigration need to realize that the key to a more ordered immigration system is to make it easier for people to become legal immigrants. Trump’s proposal of making educational attainment a way to fast-track the process is a sound one.
