US president Donald Trump has urged foreign students from top educational institutions in the country to stay behind and help in the growth of America.
Trump, addressing a press conference, said the US was "losing out on great minds" as the country has a "ridiculous" immigration policy.
“We have all these companies coming in. We need great people. But we want them to come in on a merit basis, and they have to come in on a merit basis. They can't come in the way they've been coming in for years,” Trump told reporters.
"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.
Pointing out the difficulties faced by foreign students to stay in the country once they finish their education, Trump said a solution was being worked out to solve this issue.
“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.
Trump also urged people to seek asylum in a legal way and added that “legal immigration has made this country great."
