Elon Musk’s DOGE goons are onto their next money-making scheme: selling the special immigration visas labeled “gold cards” that President Donald Trump promised would cost just $5 million apiece.
You heard that right—immigrants will soon be able buy their way into the country in a process that will take only two weeks, reported The New York Times. Those who don’t have the funds to get in will go through the typical immigration process, which can take years, or risk being deported through Trump’s mass immigration crackdown.
Musk vowed that his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crew would cut “government bloat” by slashing the federal government. He also claimed that he’d save the U.S. $1 trillion, though recent estimates put his gains at just 15 percent of that intended target.
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So his next cash grab will come from the “gold card” scheme, which grants permanent residence to foreign nationals who are willing to invest in U.S. businesses.
The program is co-led by a 19-year-old employee named Edward Coristine who publicly goes by the nickname “Big Balls” and was fired from an internship at a security company after a data breach investigation. It is also overseen by Marko Elez, 26, who faced severe backlash this year after The Wall Street Journal linked him to racist X posts and calls for immigration policy based on eugenics.
Musk and his team of young DOGE goons have been working with employees from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to create a website and application process for the visas.
The project also involves Joe Gebbia, the billionaire co-founder of Airbnb. He joined Musk’s team in February.
The gold card would replace the EB-5 visa, which previously provided green cards to anyone who invested $800,000 or $1.5 million into the American workforce. It raised about $4 billion for the federal government last year—a small percentage of the $28 trillion U.S. economy, but key funds to real estate developers and business owners who don’t want to see the visa system go away.
Trump announced the immigration loophole in February when he said a gold card would give “very high-level people” a “route to citizenship.”
Later, when asked if he would sell the cards to Russian oligarchs, Trump replied, “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
According to a 2024 report from the Immigration Research Initiative, new immigrants arriving to the U.S. can expect to earn a median wage of just $22,000 per year. So only the select few can buy their get-out-of-deportation free card.
Last month, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said he had already sold 1,000 visas. But the New York Times reported that no money has been exchanged.
“So if you have a gold card—which used to be a green card—you’re a permanent resident of America,” Lutnick said. “They pay $5 million, and they have the right to be an American and the right to be in America as long as they’re good people and they’re vetted and they can’t break the law.”
There’s been a bit of a confusion around the timeline, with the Trump administration repeatedly changing the launch date. But Lutnick has put the start date for sometime next week.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.