In a dramatic shift in U.S. immigration policy, President Donald Trump announced a new, exclusive path to U.S. citizenship—a $5 million ‘gold card’—aimed at attracting ultra-wealthy investors.
Speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, Trump positioned the initiative as a more refined alternative to the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which his administration plans to terminate, citing widespread fraud.
Trump described the gold card as a luxury alternative to the traditional Green Card, granting permanent residency and a pathway to citizenship for those willing to pay the price.
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“We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million, and that’s going to give you [permanent resident] Green Card privileges, plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship,” Trump explained. “It’s somewhat like a Green Card, but at a higher level of sophistication.”
The president emphasized that the initiative would attract wealthy and successful individuals, predicting that millions of these cards could be sold, boosting government revenues and reducing the national deficit.
“They’ll be wealthy and they’ll be successful and they’ll be spending a lot of money and paying a lot of taxes and employing a lot of people,” he said. “And we think it’s going to be extremely successful and never been done before.”
Scrapping the EB-5 Program
The announcement comes with the elimination of the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, which has been in place since 1990 and allowed foreign investors to obtain a Green Card by investing in U.S. businesses and creating at least 10 full-time jobs.
Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick criticized the EB-5 as being riddled with fraud, branding it as “full of nonsense, make-believe, and fraud.”
“It was a way to get a Green Card that was low priced,” Lutnick said, contrasting it with the $5 million ‘gold card’, which he argued would bring in more credible, high-net-worth individuals.
Once vetted, gold card holders will be expected to invest in the U.S. economy, with their payments helping to reduce the national deficit, Lutnick added.
A Controversial History of Investor-Based Immigration
The EB-5 program has long been controversial, with allegations of fraud and abuse, particularly in real estate deals. Per Independent, in 2017, Jared Kushner’s family business faced scrutiny after his sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, traveled to Beijing to market EB-5 visas to wealthy Chinese investors willing to invest in Kushner real estate projects. The move was widely criticized, with a former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush calling it “corruption, pure and simple.”
The gold card initiative, however, escalates the pay-for-residency model to unprecedented levels, effectively auctioning off U.S. citizenship to the highest bidders.
Critics Slam the Move Amid Immigration Crackdown
Trump’s announcement comes amid his administration’s broader crackdown on immigration, including efforts to end birthright citizenship through executive order—an attempt that courts have thus far blocked.
Critics argue that while ordinary migrants face harsh restrictions, the administration is creating a special privilege for the ultra-rich. Immigration advocates and Democratic lawmakers blasted the move, accusing the president of selling U.S. citizenship to billionaires while denying opportunities to asylum seekers, skilled workers, and long-time undocumented residents.
“This is immigration for sale,” said Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA). “Trump is shutting doors on families fleeing war and persecution while rolling out the red carpet for the wealthiest people on the planet.”
Will It Work?
While Trump boasts that the gold card will bring in “big taxpayers and job producers,” some economists question whether wealthy investors would pay $5 million for a residency program when other countries, such as Canada, Portugal, and the UK, offer citizenship-by-investment programs at far lower costs.
Nonetheless, the Trump administration remains confident, with Commerce Secretary Lutnick predicting a massive demand for the gold card among the world’s wealthiest individuals.
“We’re getting high-level people, and they’re bringing their money here, not somewhere else,” Lutnick insisted.