The Trump administration this week launched the president’s immigration “gold card,” a program allowing applicants to pay $1 million to become lawful permanent residents, but legal experts warn all that money could go down the drain for these hopefuls because the initiative rests on flawed legal reasoning and could be struck down in court.
Other Trump tweaks to the immigration system like a new $100,000 fee for H-1B applicants have already spawned major lawsuits, and if the gold card melts down in a court battle, applicants would face a slim chance of ever getting their money back, Shev Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told Axios.
“At the very minimum, they’d have to sue the U.S. government to get it back,” she said.
In addition to applicants being out $1 million, a court challenge could also imperil the status of people who have already gotten their gold cards.
Critics warn that the gold card program, which gives applicants permanent residency through EB-1 and EB-2 visas usually reserved for people with extraordinary abilities like famous academics or artists, exceeds the president’s legal powers. Congress, they say, can create new immigration law, not the president.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, called the whole process “VERY illegal” in a post on X this week.
“The Trump admin says anyone who pays $1 million will be deemed to have ‘exceptional business ability’ and become eligible for an employment-based immigrant visa,” he wrote. “But there's nothing stopping someone from just getting a loan or using parents' money.”
“Of course, nothing exemplifies the Trump ethos more than ‘every rich person is exceptional at business,’” he added, “but that doesn't change the fact that people who are getting this visa will not necessarily meet the legal requirements, and could risk deportation under a future admin.”
The Independent has contacted the White House and State Department for comment.
Legal concerns aside, the administration looks set to continue tilting the immigration system away from the most vulnerable and toward the wealthiest applicants.
The White House says a $5 million “platinum card” is on the way giving foreigners temporary residence in the U.S. without being subject to U.S. taxes on foreign income.
After an Afghan national allegedly shot National Guard troops in Washington, the administration froze all asylum decisions, ordered the review of green cards from a series of mostly impoverished nations on his so-called travel ban list, and indefinitely blocked immigration applications from Afghans.
