Since President Donald Trump returned to office, the administration has promised to enforce strict immigration standards. Although this has largely led to challenges in getting visas or green cards — and even the revoking of such immigration statuses — in February, Trump announced a new visa plan: the gold card visa.
By March 20, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on the All In podcast that he had already sold a thousand cards, with the program set to launch in roughly two weeks. However, many questions remain about the details of the what, who, why, and how of the visa.
The New York Times reported that Trump and Lutnick announced the gold card visa during an Oval Office press conference on Feb. 25. The card is meant to replace the EB-5 visa, which has been in place since the 1990s and allows foreigners to become lawful permanent residents (and eventually citizens) if they invest at least $1 million in a company and create or maintain 10 jobs.
By contrast, the gold card has a price tag of $5 million. Although the details have not been addressed directly, the Trump administration claims that the card is meant to prevent cases of fraud, as seen with EB-5 visas. Additionally, the administration believes that they will significantly impact the U.S. economy, as both individuals and companies will be allowed to purchase cards. In fact, according to the Times, Trump said the cards would be for “people with money and people that create jobs,” adding that, “If you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good,” confident that the U.S. will be able to sell over one million cards.
Theoretically speaking, the numbers do look promising. During his interview on All In, Lutnick claimed that “there are 37 million people in the world who are capable of buying the card,” with investors only having to pay the initial $5 million and taxes on the income generated in the U.S. According to Forbes, the national debt of the United States sits well over over $36 trillion. Hypothetically, Forbes reported that if 10 million people buy the card, resulting in $50 trillion, the U.S. could be comfortably out of debt, with smaller (yet still in the hundreds of thousands) quantities also making significant progress.
The president is currently looking to sell one million cards, which would generate $5 trillion. However, these figures don’t consider that hundreds of thousands, let alone millions, of people simply can’t afford a $5 million price per card when other factors are considered.
Although the president’s announcement certainly came as a surprise to Americans, many countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Portugal, and Greece, have similar programs. While those countries have seen significant economic benefits, those effects have been short-lived, with many programs being shut down or changed. But why?
Most of the frustration was centered around the housing markets. Property values would increase as investors were willing to pay more for houses in enticing areas. Additionally, the Times reports that investors would resell or offer short-term rentals, making it difficult for locals to compete. In fact, Forbes writer Doug Melville warns that, if brought to the U.S., this could increase the cost of living, widen the rift between socioeconomic classes, and create tensions around immigration.
Other concerns were national security, with worries that programs of this sort “could be used for money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption,” said the NYT. During both the All In interview and a press conference in February, Lutnick clarified that everyone who comes to the U.S. will be vetted and the card will be revoked in cases of crime. In fact, during the initial announcement of the card, Lutnick said that the administration will make sure that everyone will be “wonderful world class global citizens,” TIME magazine reported. However, exactly how the U.S. gold card program will better counter these problems and be overseen is unclear.
From an immigration perspective, some fear that the gold card will allow an unfair advantage for the wealthy to gain citizenship in the U.S., while those who are currently in dire circumstances or can’t afford the card face significant challenges, especially with the Trump administration’s recent actions. For example, many African countries were already unable to afford the EB-5 visa, and the new price makes it even more unlikely for people in those countries to come to the U.S., Forbes Africa said.
Others, such as Melville, also argue that the U.S. has historically offered opportunities to immigrants based on their hard work, but the introduction of the gold card, along with other actions by the administration, takes away from those ideals and instead focuses on economic advancement.
But is any of this even possible? The Trump administration continuously says that more details will be available two weeks after they were asked about them. Lutnick is the most recent one to repeat the timeline and say he has already sold 1,000 cards on the All In podcast. The fact that cards have been sold despite the limited information to the public and that the president is handling this without Congressional approval raised eyebrows.
Not only is the EB-5 originally an act of Congress, the Supreme Court has stated that Congress has the power to regulate immigration — which includes the creation of visas — under Article I, Section 8, Clause 18, of the Constitution, better known as the “Necessary and Proper” clause as it allows Congress to “make all laws that are necessary and proper,” for other laws or powers of the federal government to be effective. So, while it seems like we may be getting answers soon, it is uncertain when precisely that will be and by whom.