Washington, D.C. – Former President Donald Trump announces a fragile new policy to offer a $5 million gold card to wealthy foreign nationals to give them permanent residency in the United States. Designed to entice individuals with noteworthy liquidity to invest, the policy is advertised as a vehicle for popularly turning around the economy of America and offering affluent success a way to access its domains.
The program’s launching at a campaign rally met with Trump’s characterization of it as a ‘golden opportunity’ for the rich to seize a legal foothold within America. Trump said: “We sell a beautiful gold card-sell for $5 million it’s the best deal for the U.S. It will bring in the best people, the wealthiest, the most successful. They’ll invest like never before in our country.”
It is, one could say, a new plan, providing residency to individuals willing to invest a huge amount of capital. It resembles current investor visa schemes like the EB-5, with Trump’s version significantly raising the stakes and paving a more direct route toward permanent residency. The details of the citizenship eligibility process or specific rules on investment have not been made known.
The planned arrangement came under immediate flak from opponents as a clear plan to dispose off American residency to the maximum bidder. Advocate groups for immigrants argued that such kinds of considerations towards a handful of super-rich persons defy the entire fairness tagged along with the system. “This is a pay-to-play scheme where billionaires get helped out and millions of working immigrant families fight for a shot at the American dream,” commented one immigration policy specialist.
Supporters, however, praise the idea as a method to harvest billions from tax revenue or draw foreign investors who might offer assistance in growing businesses and their worth in job opportunities. Republican buddies have equated it to a method of taxation dependency through foreign money.
Trump will not elaborate on the specifics of the funding for the program but suggested its use for extraction infrastructure, protection at the border, and economic growth projects. This also brings into question whether Congress should sanction such a policy or if it can be effected through executive order.
As Trump prepares to run in 2024 for a possible return to the White House, the “gold card” proposal promises yet another bold measly-and-controversial idea on his agenda. Its enactment or blocking by legal and political avenues remains to be seen.