WASHINGTON: Ruing that talented foreign students are leaving the United States after studying in the country’s best educational institutions, President Donald Trump has said he wants people with merit to stay in America and help the growth of companies here.
Addressing a press conference, Trump said the US is “losing out on great minds” as the country has a “ridiculous” immigration policy.
He reiterated his wish to end loopholes in the legal immigration system so as to attract more people based on merit. Trump said his administration wants people to come into the country legally and on merit.
We have all these companies coming in. We need great people. But we want them to come in on a merit basis. They can’t come in the way they’ve been coming in for years, Trump told reporters during a news conference here.
“I get calls from the great tech companies, and they’re saying we don’t allow people at the top of their class, at the best schools in the country, we don’t allow them to stay in our country, he said.
So, they end up going back to China and Japan and so many other countries all over the world, and we don’t keep them. They get educated at our finest schools, and then we don’t allow them, through a various set of circumstances, to have any guarantees of staying. So we lose out on great minds. We can’t do that, he said.
Trump was referring to difficulties being faced by foreign students to stay and work in the US after they complete their education in the country.
Trump said that this issue was discussed with Democratic Congressional leadership during a meeting at the White House.
We discussed that with the Democrats, and I think they agree. We’re working on that. But we don’t want to lose our great companies because we have a ridiculous policy that we won’t accept smart people. So, call it politically correct or not, but we have to let these great, brilliant companies have the smartest people in the world, Trump said.
He said if somebody wants to seek asylum, there’s a way to do that. “There are legal ways to come to this country, and legal immigration has made this country great.” PTI
