Defending his “Gold Card” proposal against allegations of serving just wealthy immigrants, US President Donald Trump said American businesses could purchase his proposed offer to help keep bright students from countries like India, who went to schools in the United States for tighter studies. 

“I get calls from, as an example, companies where they want to hire the No. 1 student at the school, a person comes from India, China, Japan, lots of different places, and they go to Harvard to Wharton School of Finance, they go to Yale, they go to all great schools and graduate number one in their class and they are made job offers,” the President said Wednesday as he convened the first full Cabinet meeting of his second term. 

Mr Trump suggested that American firms struggle to recruit or retain high-quality talent because of uncertainty over the immigration status of some students. 

“And they (immigrant students) made job offers, but the offer is immediately rescinded because you have no idea whether or not that person can stay in the country. I want to be able to have that person stay in the country. These companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment. We’re going to start selling, hopefully, in about two weeks now,” he said.

US companies, particularly in Silicon Valley, have reportedly complained about difficulty filling many of their posts. Mr 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.

The President also insisted that he saw the ‘Gold Card’ as a tool to raise money to pay down the national debt. He predicted that the ‘gold card’ would be well received by businesses. 

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

Trump’s “Gold card”

The president unveiled the proposed program on Tuesday. 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. 

The President said the program would start in two weeks and insisted he did not believe he would need congressional approval to launch it. Immigration experts, however, say lawmakers likely would need to approve the change. 

Mr 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.

Sitting beside the President, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick 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. 

Under the proposal, individuals would pay the money to the US government, which Mr 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.