Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick used a cabinet meeting to tout his plan to sell $5 million Gold Card citizenships to wealthy foreigners.
“The attention of the Trump gold card … makes me very popular,” Lutnick told a noncommittal President Donald Trump on April 30. “Last night, I was out to dinner, and someone came up and said, “Can I buy 10? How do I buy 10?” and I’m like, “It’s pretty good, it’s $50 million [in income during a] dinner.”
But Lutnick did not explain to his silent cabinet peers how his plan could survive courtroom contact with the citizens’ rights enshrined in existing immigration law.
“The gold card does not fit within the Immigration and Nationality Act as currently enacted,” noted a study by George Fishman at the Center for Immigration Studies:
Could a President establish an immigration program not authorized by, or even a program specifically barred by, the INA? Likely not.
The Supreme Court has concluded that, under the Constitution, Congress has plenary power over immigration and concluded that the principle that “the formulation of … policies [pertaining to the entry of aliens and their right to remain here] is entrusted exclusively to Congress has become about as firmly imbedded in the legislative and judicial tissues of our body politic as any aspect of our government.”
Even the pro-migration, investor-backed Cato Institute is skeptical:
Green card caps and categories were established by Congress through the Immigration and Nationality Act. Would wealthy individuals invest in a system without solid assurances of its legality? Congress just reformed the EB‑5 [investor visa] in 2022, and there is no authority to make these radical changes. While Trump could use his “parole” authority to grant temporary lawful residence to people willing to pay $5 million, his administration has taken the position that this type of “categorical” parole is unlawful. Moreover, Trump insisted that the gold card would include “green card privileges” and “path to citizenship,” which can only come from an actual green card. It is doubtful that wealthy people would pay $5 million for something with dubious legal standing or a temporary status that could be rescinded at any time.
Congress should step in to help the Gold Card program, wrote Cato’s director of immigration studies, David Bier:
A green card sale could help reduce the deficit. But if the initial sale fails to sell one million, the Department of Homeland Security should be authorized to lower the $5 million price and conduct additional sales at six-month intervals until applications reach a pace projected to hit one million over 10 years.
Under the Extraction Migration policy pushed by President Joe Biden and his pro-migration deputies, 300 million blue-collar and white-collar Americans lost power and wealth in the labor and housing markets to investors and government bureaucrats.
Americans also lost workplace investment, productivity, and training once enabled by employers. Many college graduates lost career opportunities as border czar Alejandro Mayorkas expanded the inflow of white-collar workers, such as H-1B visa workers.
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