Campaign walks back Trump’s green card promise

Former President Trump’s campaign walked back a promise that the former president would "automatically" award green cards to migrants after they graduate from college.

"President Trump has made it clear that on day one of his new administration, he’s going to shut down the border and launch the largest mass deportation effort of illegal aliens in history," Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement last week, according to a New York Post report, noting that the former president would include an "aggressive vetting process" and "exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges."

The comments come after Trump’s appearance on the "All-in Podcast" last week, where the former president outlined an idea to give all foreign college graduates a green card with their diploma.

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Former President Trump (Sean Rayford/Getty Images/File)

"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 during the appearance.

The proposal received immediate pushback, with Center for Immigration Studies Executive Director Mark Krikorian telling the New York Post that such a handout was "a cockamamie proposal" that would prompt a "fire hose of foreign cash" by "stapling a green card to the diploma" of a U.S. college graduate.

"If someone earns a Ph.D. at a university in a hard science, I personally will drive to their house and give them a green card," Krikorian said. "The issue is any foreign college graduate, even from a bogus two-year master’s program or gender studies [major], would get a green card."

The critique was echoed by Chris Chmielenski, the president of the conservative Immigration Accountability Project, who argued such a plan "would reduce wages for all Americans, increase job competition, particularly for recent college graduates, and pose a national security threat."

Conservative critics lashed out at Trump's proposal. (Donald Trump 2024 campaign/File)

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"U.S. immigration policy must serve the interests of all Americans, not the interests of elite business leaders who seek cheap labor," he said.

Meanwhile, the Biden campaign also took aim at the remarks, telling Fox News Digital that his proposal represented an "empty promise," most notably to "the countless people that have been permanently damaged by his first-term in office."

"Every chance Donald Trump got in office, he made it his mission to rip apart immigrant families for his own political gain," campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said. "He's also proudly running to go even further in a second term, not only by openly echoing Nazi rhetoric around immigrants, but also by promising cruel policies like rounding up immigrants and putting them into mass detention camps."

President Biden (Anna Moneymaker/File)

But Leavitt sought to clarify the president’s remarks in her statements, noting that such a program "would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers."

"He believes, only after such vetting has taken place, we ought to keep the most skilled graduates who can make significant contributions to America," Leavitt said. "This would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers."

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The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.