'Gold cards' can help firms hire Ivy League, other US univ grads: Trump

By Josh Wingrove

  President Donald Trump said American businesses could purchase his proposed “gold cards” to help keep students of Ivy League and other top universities in the country after they graduate, defending an initiative aimed at drawing wealthy individuals as immigrants to the US. 

“I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the No. 1 student at the school, person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places, and they go to Harvard to Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale,” Trump said Wednesday as he convened his first full Cabinet meeting of his second term. 

 

Trump suggested that US firms struggle to recruit or retain high-quality talent because of uncertainty over the immigration status of some students. US companies, particularly in Silicon Valley, have said they have difficulties filling many of their posts. Trump, who has taken steps to crack down on undocumented migration, has said he wants to welcome more legal immigrants with in-demand skills or the wealth to invest in the country.

 

“These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment,” he said.

 

The president, who unveiled the proposed programme on Tuesday alongside Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, predicted that it would be well received by businesses. 

 

“I happen to think it’s going to sell like crazy. It’s a bargain,” he said.

 

The gold card initiative would offer residency and a path to citizenship for people who pay $5 million, creating a new avenue for legal immigration. Trump has said the programme would start in two weeks and that he does not believe he would need congressional approval. Immigration experts, however, say lawmakers likely would need to approve the change. 

 

Lutnick has said the move could replace the existing EB-5 program, which allows foreign investors and their immediate families to gain permanent residence by investing a certain amount toward an American business and funding at least 10 US jobs. Critics have said that programme has been exploited by the Chinese government.

 

Trump said that they are still discussing the vetting parameters to qualify for the gold cards. Asked if there would be restrictions on US rivals, such as China, Trump said limits might not be nationality focused, but there would still be rules on which individuals could take part.

 

“We want to make sure we have people that love our country and are capable of loving the country,” Trump said.

 

Under the proposal, individuals would pay the money to the US government, which Trump has said can be used to pay down the debt. On Wednesday, he said selling 1 million gold cards could raise $5 trillion but immigration experts have said that the pool of individuals who could afford to take part in the program is far smaller.