What happened
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. would soon start selling $5 million "gold card" visas that offer permanent residency and a "road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent." Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the "Trump gold card" would replace EB-5 visas for foreign investors within two weeks. Separately, the Trump administration announced a new federal registry for all unauthorized immigrants 14 and older.
Who said what
The new "gold card" is "somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication," Trump said. The "wealthy" people who pay for the visa will be "spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people." He predicted wealthy people — "possibly" including "Russian oligarchs" — and companies hiring high-skill workers could buy a million of the visas.
The new registry program would fine unregistered immigrants up to $5,000 and jail them for up to six months, criminalizing what was previously a civil offense, The Wall Street Journal said. The program relies on an "obscure provisions of immigration law that have proved impractical to enforce in the past." Those "registration laws" also "have a very, very bad history" when "fully enforced," New York University law professor Nancy Morawetz said to The Washington Post, including aiding the detention of Japanese Americans in World War II and Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
What next?
Congress created the EB-5 program in the 1990s to "channel foreign investment into economically marginalized areas and create local jobs," the Journal said. It "isn't clear" how Trump could "legally end or significantly alter an existing green-card program without the involvement of Congress." The new immigrant registry proposal was similarly on "shaky legal ground," the Post said.
-
Taps could run dry in drought-stricken TehranUnder the Radar President warns that unless rationing eases water crisis, citizens may have to evacuate the capital
-
Alaska faces earth-shaking loss as seismic monitoring stations shutterIN THE SPOTLIGHT NOAA cuts have left the western seaboard without a crucial resource to measure, understand and predict tsunamis
-
10 great advent calendars for everyone (including the dog)The Week Recommends Countdown with cocktails, jams and Legos
-
‘America today isn’t just looking to overcome’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Is Trump a lame duck president?Talking Points Republicans are considering a post-Trump future
-
Trump pardons 2020 fake electors, other GOP alliesSpeed Read The president pardoned Rudy Giuliani and more who tried to overturn his 2020 election loss
-
Supreme Court to decide on mail-in ballot limitsSpeed Read The court will determine whether states can count mail-in ballots received after Election Day
-
Democrats split as Senate votes to end shutdownSpeed Read The proposed deal does not extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, the Democrats’ main demand
-
USDA orders states to ‘undo’ full SNAP paymentsSpeed Read The Trump administration is telling states not to pay full November food stamp benefits
-
Senate takes first step to end record shutdownSpeed Read Eight senators in the Democratic caucus voted with Republicans to advance legislation to reopen the government
-
Trump’s trade war: has China won?Talking Point US president wanted to punish Beijing, but the Asian superpower now holds the whip hand
