Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump (and Republicans generally) are strongly against allowing anyone who came to the U.S. illegally to become a citizen. This also applies to people brought in as infants, who went to school and college in the U.S. and who served in and were honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces and who now have a good job and are paying taxes.
However, Trump just thought of a new scam. Rich foreigners who have never set foot in the country, who don't speak English, and who know nothing about the country or its history are now welcome to buy a gold card for $5 million, which will let them in legally and will lead to citizenship in a few years. This appears to apply even to people from "sh**hole" countries. When asked if Russian oligarchs were eligible, Trump said: "Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people."
The idea of letting in wealthy foreigners is not entirely new. In 1992, Congress created a program (the EB-5 visa) in which immigrants who invested $1 million to create jobs for American workers could get a green card. If the money was invested in a distressed area, then $800,000 was enough. Trump's companies made heavy use of this program to raise capital for real estate projects. In 2018, Eric Trump let the cat out of the bag when he bragged: "We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia." It has been reported that a group of 63 Russian billionaires invested $100 million in Trump's properties. The oligarchs pouring money into Trump's projects all got green cards, of course. Under the new program, the need for investing and creating jobs is gone. Oligarchs can just straight up buy green cards and then get citizenship without the inconvenience of actually having to make an investment. Probably Trump has so much foreign money now that he simply has no use for any more.
For oligarchs in many countries, not just Russia, having a green card is like an insurance policy. For example, if the dictator who runs their country dies or gets overthrown and they suddenly need to get out of the country within an hour, before the new one can round up all the friends of the old one, a green card is ideal. And at $5 million, with no fuss or muss, it is one of the world's great bargains. (V)