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Citadel founder and CEO Ken Griffin said foreign students in the US should be handed visas when they graduate from universities.
“The key is they need to stay here,” Griffin said at the Milken Institute Global Conference on Wednesday. “Right, that’s the key, and we are not doing enough to make access to staying in America either easy or preferred for so many of these students.”
“It should literally be if you graduate from one of America’s great universities, great graduate schools, you should just get a visa stamp to your degree,” Griffin added.
Griffin’s suggestion is similar to what President Donald Trump had proposed while he was out on the campaign trail last year. Trump said foreign students should be given permanent residency after they graduate from US colleges.
“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, and that includes junior colleges too,” Trump said in an episode of the “All-In” podcast which aired in June.
This isn’t the first time Griffin has called on the Trump administration to keep the US open to the best and brightest worldwide.
In November, Griffin spoke at the Economic Club of New York, where he said that while America’s southern borders needed to be secured, the country also needed to have a “thoughtful” immigration policy.
“I’d like to see Washington now execute an immigration policy that is thoughtful, that protects this nation’s great stature in the world of being the country you come to pursue your dreams,” Griffin said.
During his first term, Trump targeted the H-1B visa program, which is granted to skilled foreign workers in the US. In June 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the president ordered a freeze on several visa programs, including the H-1B.
The H-1B visa program is popular with tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta. In the US, up to 85,000 foreign workers are hired annually under the H-1B program.
But in December, Trump told the New York Post that he supports the H-1B visa program, adding that he “always liked the visas.”
“I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I have been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program,” Trump said.
Representatives for Griffin at Citadel did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
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