Trump wants to sell US citizenship for $5 million

^{Photo: AFP}
US President Donald Trump said that a $5 million "gold card" will be sold to wealthy foreigners. This will give foreigners the right to live and work in the United States, as well as the opportunity to obtain citizenship. This was reported by CNN.

We will sell a golden card. You have a green card. This is a golden card. We will set the price of this card at about $5 million, and it will give you the benefits of a green card, as well as a path to citizenship. As a result, wealthy people who buy this card will come to our country, the politician said.

Trump said that sales of the cards will begin in about two weeks and noted that millions of such cards will be put on sale. He did not exclude that some Russian oligarchs will buy them.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the card will replace the government's EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, which allows foreign investors to invest in projects that create jobs in the United States and then apply for a visa to immigrate to the United States.

Of course, they must pass a background check to make sure they are citizens of the world, Lutnick said.

The EB-5 program, established by Congress in 1992, can grant green cards to immigrants who invest at least $1,050,000 in a project to create jobs for American workers, or $800,000 in economically disadvantaged areas called Targeted Employment Areas, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website.

Businesses linked to Trump and his family have also used the program to finance major real estate projects.

The program has faced criticism from both parties in Congress during Trump's first term. Many said the program had fallen short of its goals and needed reform.

In 2019, the Trump administration tried to increase the minimum investment amount for targeted economic zones to $900,000, and $1.8 million elsewhere. However, in 2021, a federal judge ruled that the acting secretary of homeland security who approved the rule had not been properly appointed and struck down the change.

The program was last updated in 2022 under the Biden administration, when the minimum investment requirements were raised to current levels. Follow “Zamin” news on “Telegram”