President Donald Trump’s plan to offer a "gold card" visa to wealthy immigrants is similar to policies in use in more than three dozen countries (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said that the new gold card would replace the current EB-5 Immigrant Investor visa program within two weeks, a program that was created by Congress in 1990 and offers residency to people who spent about $1 million on a business while employing at least 10 people, the report notes.
Trump has also touted the program as a way of trimming the national debt.
"It’s the exact opposite of the Biden administration’s policy. On one side of the curve we had the mass migrations of unvetted, undocumented immigrants coming in the southern border that were essentially living on the taxpayer dime[.]"
"Companies can go and buy a gold card, and they can use it as a matter of recruitment," Trump told reporters Wednesday. "At the same time, the company is using that money to pay down debt. We’re going to pay down a lot of debt with that."
Esposito shares Trump’s view for how the money can be used, noting that 1 million gold card recipients would result in $5 trillion for the U.S. Treasury.
"A million individuals coming in would be $5 trillion in payment to the government, off the bat, that doesn’t include the derivative growth of those individuals being here," Esposito said.
Former President Joe Biden speaks with US Customs and Border Protection officers as he visits the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, on January 8, 2023. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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Ultimately, Esposito says, Trump’s program will cause a "mutually beneficial" partnership between the U.S. and gold card holders.
"It is the greatest nation in the world. It is the greatest economy in the world," Esposito said. "This is just simply a way of vetting people and having people come in that will create a mutually beneficial relationship between the United States, and the United States economy, and those gold card holders."
The White House did not immediately respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.
Michael Lee is a writer for Fox News. Prior to joining Fox News, Michael worked for the Washington Examiner, Bongino.com, and Unbiased America. He has covered politics for more than eight years.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trumps-gold-card-visa-plan-boon-american-economy-expert-says-mutually-beneficial