President Donald Trump is intensifying his efforts to address illegal immigration in the US, but he’s also providing an option for wealthy migrants to accelerate their path to US citizenship.
On February 25, Trump announced a proposal to introduce a $5 million ‘gold card’ visa. This initiative would allow financially capable immigrants to legally live and work in the United States.
Describing the initiative, Trump, aged 78, compared it to a ‘green card privileges plus’ document, indicating that it could be ready for implementation within two weeks.
During the inaugural meeting of his Cabinet, Trump revisited this topic, expressing confidence in the program’s potential to sell a large number of these visas.
“I happen to think it’ll sell like crazy. It’s a market. But we’ll know very soon,” the president said.
He further remarked, “If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion dollars.
“I think we will sell a lot because I think there’s really a thirst.”
Howard Lutnick, the US Secretary of Commerce, referred to the visa as the ‘Trump gold card,’ criticizing the existing EB-5 visa as ‘full of nonsense and make-believe fraud.’
The EB-5 visa currently costs about $20,000 and requires foreign investors to invest approximately $1 million in a US enterprise.
Trump stated, “We’re going to end the EB-5 program and we’re going to replace it with the Trump gold card,” during a press briefing in the Oval Office on February 26.
Lutnick explained that the ‘gold card’ would be intended for ‘wonderful world-class global citizens’ and would contribute to reducing the federal deficit.
In discussions with reporters, he hinted that this card would provide a unique ‘route to citizenship’ that has ‘never been done before,’ adding: “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.”
“You’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” Trump continued. “It could be great, maybe it will be fantastic.”
The president noted that this initiative does not require approval from Congress.
“We don’t need Congress … It’s a path to citizenship, a very strong path to citizenship, but we’re not doing citizenship. For that I’d have to get Congress,” he stated.
This program would be accessible to international investors worldwide, including Russian businesspeople and oligarchs, assuming they can afford the $5 million fee.
“I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people,” Trump continued. “They’re not quite as wealthy as they used to be.”