President Donald Trump said his administration would properly vet anyone who buys one of his proposed $5 million “gold card” visas as he looks to replace the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program, noting there is still potential for a refund and deportation after the fact should problems arise.
Trump floated the idea late in February at the Oval Office as a way for immigrants to obtain green card privileges. It’s now being pitched as a route to U.S. citizenship and as a way to pay down the national debt.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham asked the president in an interview on “The Ingraham Angle” that aired Wednesday why American citizenship should be available for purchase at any price.
“Because I’m America First,” he responded. “Because at $5 million, you’re getting a lot of things.”
THE NATIONAL DEBT IS ABOUT TO HIT A TERRIFYING NUMBER NO MATTER WHAT WE DO
Trump suggested the United States could sell 1 million of the gold cards to wealthy immigrants at a price of $5 million each.
The $5 trillion revenue, he said, would go entirely toward paying down the roughly $36 trillion in national debt.
Ingraham pressed Trump on whether such an incentive would allow “unsavory” people to come into the country.
The 47th president said he was worried about who could enter under the new gold card program but vowed to have strict vetting procedures.
TRUMP’S ‘GOLD CARD’ VISA COULD INVITE FRAUD, NATIONAL SECURITY RISKS: EXPERT
“If somebody is wrong — we actually are very nice because it makes it a lot easier legally — we give them their money back, and we send them out,” he said.
The EB-5 immigrant investor program was created by Congress in 1990 to “stimulate the U.S. economy through job creation and capital investment by foreign investors,” according to a description on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ website.
It’s unclear what legal challenges the Trump administration could face if it seeks to end the program outright, given it was created by Congress.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told reporters the existing EB-5 program is “full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud.”
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