Donald Trump has revealed a new Willy Wonka-style plan which will allow him to give out golden tickets to a select lucky few to gain permanent residence in the US – for a hefty price
Donald Trump has expressed a wish to send out ‘golden ticket visas’ to the ultra wealthy to enter the US.
The US President added the new immigration process, which will let millionaires purchase a ticket for $5million (£3.9million), could start in two weeks time. In his ‘Willy Wonka’ style plan, Trump described it “somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication”. Currently, a US green card gives a person permanent resident status in the United States. Notoriously difficult to come by, Trump wants foreign billionaires to move to his country.
For his reasoning, Trump said in the Oval Office: “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5million 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 they’ll be successful and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people.
“And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”
At the moment, a similar process named the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is in place. This grants investors the opportunity to apply for permanent US residence if they “make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States”.
That includes at least 10 permanent full-time jobs. Now, Trump’s team wants a re-brand.
Howard Lutnick, Secretary of Commerce, explained they will replace the programme with “the Trump gold card”.
Lutnick described the EB-5 program as “full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud,” adding: “It was a way to get a green card that was low priced.” The team insist this process will cherry-pick the people most likely to generate wealth in the US – or in Trump’s words, “very high level people”.
Once vetted, gold card holders “can invest in America and we can use that money to reduce our deficit,” Lutnik added.
With these cards, “you’re getting big taxpayers, big job producers, and we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that,” Trump said.
On the same day, the Trump administration announced the creation of a registry for all people who are in the United States illegally, and those who don’t self-report could face fines or prosecution, immigration officials announced Tuesday (February 25).
The announcement came after the administration promised to carry out mass deportations of people in the country illegally and seal the border to future asylum-seekers.
“An alien’s failure to register is a crime that could result in a fine, imprisonment, or both,” the statement said. “For decades, this law has been ignored — not anymore.”
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