Warren Buffett declares immigrants a blessing as Trump shuts down refugee programme

Warren Buffett made it clear he’s not in President Donald Trump’s camp when it comes to immigration.

“This country has been blessed by immigrants,” he told a crowd of students at Columbia University on Friday in New York. “You can take them from any country you want, and they’ve come here and they found something that unleashed the potential that the place that they left did not, and we’re the product of it.”

That answer came in response to a student’s question about how Buffett and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who also appeared at the event, would advise the new administration on immigration and health-care policy.

“I always say to people who are anti-immigration, let’s put it in retroactively. Everybody leaves,” Buffett said, eliciting laughter from the crowd.

Trump has moved quickly to fulfil campaign pledges to voters who feel the country is being overwhelmed by immigrants taking American jobs. This week, he signed directives that would set in motion construction of a border wall with Mexico and toughen immigration enforcement within the US. The president also signed an executive action Friday to establish vetting procedures for some people seeking to enter the US, saying the measure would prevent terrorists from being admitted.