Donald Trump’s “gold card” visa, where a foreigner can shell out at least $1 million to legally live and work in the U.S., has been approved for one person, said Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick Thursday — appearing to fall a bit short of an earlier claim.
After it launched in December, Lutnick said that the government had sold $1.3 billion “worth” in just several days, as Trump stood by holding up the gilded ticket and said, “essentially it’s the green card on steroids.”
Lutnick did not address the apparent discrepancy in an exchange with a congresswoman at Thursday’s committee hearing.
The thought-exercise I’m currently trying to resolve is: what happens when a US citizen applies for one of these? Let’s say you scrape together the cash and buy one. Will that matter if ICE throws you in a cell anyway? Now let’s consider what happens if the same happens for an immigrant? I’m gonna say that these aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on; right now I don’t think there’s any such magic talisman (short of being a celebrity) that will help once you’re inside US’ borders.