President Donald Trump is once again proving why he is the ultimate dealmaker.
On Tuesday, the 45th president announced his latest economic and immigration reform initiative: the “Gold Card” visa, a $5 million fast-track to U.S. citizenship aimed at attracting top-tier investors and job creators.
This move would completely replace the Employment-Based Fifth Preference Immigrant Investor Program (EB-5), which has long been criticized for rampant abuse, corruption, and exploitation by foreign nationals seeking cheap access to America.
During a press briefing, Trump laid out his bold new plan, emphasizing that the days of handing out Green Cards like candy are over.
Instead, under his administration, only serious investors with proven financial strength would be allowed to buy their way into the American Dream—while simultaneously helping reduce the U.S. deficit.
Pres. Trump:
We’re going to be doing something else. It’s going to be very good. We’re going to be selling a Gold Card. You have a Green Card—this is a Gold Card. We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you Green Card privileges plus. It’s going to be a route to citizenship.Wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. They’ll be wealthy and successful, and they’ll be spending a lot of money, paying a lot of taxes, and employing a lot of people. We think it’s going to be extremely successful. It’s never been done before—anything like this—but it’s something that we’re going to be putting out over the next [two weeks].
The current EB-5 visa program, established in 1990, allows foreign investors to gain U.S. green cards by investing in U.S. businesses and creating jobs.
The standard investment is $1,050,000, but it drops to $800,000 for Targeted Employment Areas (TEAs), which are rural or high-unemployment areas.
The EB-5 program has been repeatedly associated with corruption and fraud, earning it a reputation as a target for bad actors.
In 2017, Senator Chuck Grassley raised concerns about a scheme where fraudsters pocketed $50 million from Chinese investors, with projects never materializing, yet over 100 investors, including Chinese fugitives, obtained visas.
Another example is the 2016 SEC action against a couple accused of misusing $27 million from Chinese investors for a cancer treatment center that never materialized.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick:
The EB-5 program was really—you lend some money—but it was full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud. It was a way to get a Green Card at a low price.So the President said, rather than having this ridiculous EB-5 program, we’re going to end it. We’re going to replace it with the Trump Gold Card, which is really a “Green Card Gold.” They’ll be able to pay $5 million to the U.S. government. They’ll have to go through vetting, of course—we’re going to make sure they’re wonderful, world-class, global citizens. They can come to America, the President can give them a Green Card, and they can invest in America.
And we can use that money to reduce our deficit. Why do we give out lotteries for Green Cards? Why do we give out EB-5 Green Cards? The President understands that the right answer is: why don’t we eliminate the deficit of the United States of America instead?
Trump envisions the Gold Card visa program as a game-changer for the American economy.
He suggested that if one million investors took advantage of the program, the U.S. could see a staggering $5 trillion in new revenue. If 10 million wealthy individuals opted in, that number could skyrocket to $50 trillion, completely wiping out the U.S. national debt.
Pres. Trump:
The Gold Card will bring in people that create jobs, very high-level people. I think companies will pay to get people in.For instance, today, you graduate from the Wharton School of Finance, Harvard, Stanford, or any top college, and nobody knows if you can even go to work for a company.
So Apple and all these companies that want to get top talent will be able to buy a card for them—for people who are number one in their class at these schools. I see that as one of the uses.
But generally speaking, it’ll be for people with money and people who create jobs. They won’t have to pay any tax on income outside of the United States, which they’re not paying right now—they’re not citizens. But they’ll have to pay full taxes in the U.S. if they create jobs here, just like everybody else.
So you’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers. We might be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good. As an example, a million cards would be worth $5 trillion. And if you sell 10 million of the cards, that’s a total of $50 trillion. Well, we have $35 trillion in debt—that’d be nice.
So we’ll see. But it could be great. Maybe it will be fantastic. We have it all worked out from the legal standpoint—it’s totally legal to do. It hasn’t been done before, but it’s been done in different forms. We usually just give them away. Why should we give them away? We shouldn’t.
And I think it’s something very exciting—potentially something that we’re all very excited about.
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