US Vice President JD Vance has stirred a new immigration debate in the country. While speaking to Fox News, Vance said, “Americans decide who gets to join our national community.”
US Vice President JD Vance has triggered a new immigration debate in the United States with his latest remarks on green card holders. Speaking to Fox News, Vance stressed that a green card holder “doesn’t have an indefinite right to be in the United States.”
Vance emphasised, “This is not fundamentally about ‘free speech.’ Yes, it’s about national security—but more importantly, it’s about who do we, as American public, decide gets to join our national community.”
Notably, green cards, which are officially known as Permanent Resident Cards, allow foreign nationals to work in America, but these do not grant “permanent residency” in the US.
According to laws in the US, a green card can be revoked under certain circumstances, including indulgence in criminal activity, prolonged absence from the country, or failure to comply with immigration regulations.
Vance’s remarks have come in the backdrop of US President Donald Trump’s proposal of the ‘Gold Card’ initiative, which is aimed at creating a new immigration pathway. Under the Gold Card initiative, companies can purchase the cards, which will enable them to hire foreign talents.
Trump earlier suggested that this initiative could generate billions of dollars and could be used to pay the national debt. While announcing his Gold Card initiative, Trump said, “They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful.”
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the “Trump Gold Card” would replace EB-5 visas in two weeks. EB-5s were created by Congress in 1990 to generate foreign investment and are available to people who spend about USD 1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
Lutnick said the gold card—actually a green card, or permanent legal residency—would raise the price of admission for investors and do away with fraud and “nonsense” that he said characterise the EB-5 program.
(With inputs from AP)
