Editorial Note: Opinions and thoughts are the author’s own and not those of AFROTECH™.
Last week, President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would sell “gold card” visas for over $5 million to wealthy foreigners to alleviate the country’s trillion dollars in debt. As he continues to align himself with billionaire oligarchs, sycophants like Vladimir Putin—it’s clear that Trump has never cared for ordinary people.
In his statement, he claimed that this new initiative had never been done before. But as always, he is mistaken. Investing large sums of money in citizenship has been in place in various countries across Europe and the Caribbean. The incentive of citizenship for pay—with advantages like limited restrictions and more flexibility—can open the door for wealthy yet dubious individuals to perform illicit activities.
While no one can assume that every person who pays upwards of millions of dollars for foreign citizenship is a criminal, the lack of regulations opens up the EU, and potentially the U.S., to the risks of corruption.
In the U.S., we have a similar program called the EB-5 visa, which allows investors to become eligible for green cards if they invest between $800,000 and $1 million in businesses and create jobs. The program was created in the 1990s to encourage investments in rural and economically disadvantaged areas. But Trump’s plans to overhaul the current EB-5 visa don’t require the foreign person to invest in businesses or create any jobs, and the $5 million price point may hinder any success this program could bring.
Experts have mixed opinions on whether the gold card could generate more revenue. There is little evidence to suggest that these golden visa programs will benefit the country, especially as those programs have barely benefited countries in the EU and the Caribbean. Providing direct citizenship to the world’s wealthiest with minimal requirements and legalities feels like an open invitation for the world’s most devious, like Russian oligarchs and other problematic individuals.
Trump has gone on record saying that the visas could also benefit corporations like Apple and Microsoft that outsource their work to foreign citizens. Corporations are always looking for ways to save money, even with the employees they hire. Spending $5 million on each foreign employee doesn’t exactly boost the economy either, as corporations aren’t willing to spend that much money without something in return.
This plan, coupled with Trump’s obsession with tariffs, is primed to cripple the economy and lead us to a recession. Golden visas also send a clear signal that immigration is only a pesky problem that can be fixed for the rich and powerful, while others who contribute to U.S. society are left behind. While the rest of the country is in denial, the Trump administration’s domestic and foreign policies aren’t strengthening the U.S. position as a world power but are weakening it. Allowing potential criminals to purchase citizenship with no strings attached poses far more risks than benefits. This will only widen the wealth gap in this country and expose us to dangerous individuals.
