Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has started rolling out digital infrastructure for a new golden visa immigration program, according to sources familiar with the matter, public records, and tests conducted by WIRED. The White House has yet to formally announce the initiative, but some US permanent residents and foreign visitors are already being asked if they have applied for a “Trump Card Visa.”
Lambert here: Oh good. More gusanos.
DOGE’s involvement in the visa project shows how quickly Musk and his team have expanded their purview….
Representatives from DOGE have spent the past several weeks coordinating on the golden visa program with officials from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the State Department, and other agencies, according to sources with knowledge of the meetings. On Musk’s side, the project is being overseen by two high-profile DOGE associates, Marko Elez and Edward Coristine.
One focus area for Musk’s team has been figuring out how to plug current US government systems for verifying travelers and processing immigration applications into what may eventually become a stand-alone website designed specifically for the Trump Card Visa. In late March, DOGE registered the domain trumpcard.gov, according to public records published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Tests conducted by WIRED show the website has subdomains corresponding to a number of federal agencies and systems, including CBP, the State Department, and the USCIS Electronic Immigration System, the main portal for processing visa paperwork. The subdomains indicate that trumpcard.gov has been connected to digital infrastructure across multiple parts of the federal government.
A reference to the Trump Card Visa has also been added in the live application form for Global Entry, a program run by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that allows preapproved US citizens, green card holders, and travelers from certain countries to enter the US through a fast lane, saving them time at the airport.
The White House hasn’t clarified whether it believes current immigration law provides the president statutory authority for creating the Trump Card Visa. “It’s not clear what the legal basis is, unless they do something such as have Congress pass a bill through both houses and the president signs it, which is called legislation,” says Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan think tank focused on trade and immigration issues.
During a podcast appearance in March, Trump’s commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, claimed he had already sold 1,000 gold cards. He noted that Trump had estimated they could sell 1 million overall.
Lutnick originally proposed Trump’s gold card as a replacement for one of these categories, known as the EB-5 investor visa, which is perhaps the closest thing the United States currently has to a golden visa.
When the program was initially crafted, experts say, lawmakers went to great lengths to ensure it wasn’t seen as a pathway for corrupt oligarchs to unfairly buy their way into the United States. Part of that effort was ensuring immigration authorities carefully assess each EB-5 application to verify the investment funds aren’t coming from illegal or unsavory sources.
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