President Donald Trump's scheme to earn revenue by selling "gold card" immigrant visas is being brought to life by Elon Musk's DOGE team, according to a new report in The New York Times.
Trump first discussed the notion in February to sell the exclusive visas for $5 million a piece to give “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship.”
At the time, Trump and his commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, claimed the gold card visas would replace the EB-5 visa that grants citizenship to foreign nationals who invest in U.S. businesses, according to the report.
"That program provided green cards to individuals who invested either $800,000 or $1.05 million, creating at least 10 jobs for American workers. It raised about $4 billion for the federal government last year," wrote reporters Ryan Mac and Hamed Aleaziz.
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DOGE engineers have worked with the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, "to create a website and application process for the visas," the report said.
Reportedly tasked with heading up the team to attract ultra-wealthy immigrants were 19-year-old Edward Coristine, who goes by "Big Balls" online, and 26-year-old Marko Elez, whose racist social media posts called for immigration policies based on eugenics.
Lutnick was quoted on a podcast last month claiming "he had sold 1,000 of the visas 'yesterday.' But a person close to the project said no money had been exchanged yet," the report stated.
“So if you have a gold card — which used to be a green card — you’re a permanent resident of America," Lutnick continued, adding, "They pay $5 million, and they have the right to be an American and the right to be in America as long as they’re good people and they’re vetted and they can’t break the law.”