“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Never mind.
Those words, minus “never mind” are part of a poem, “The New Colossus,” written by Emma Lazarus, and are inscribed on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, intending to proclaim the accepting spirit of America towards immigrants.
Tuesday, President Trump announced that the US government will soon begin selling “gold cards” to immigrants. He does love gold. The cards will provide the typical residency status of the current green-card along with a path to American citizenship.
“It’s somewhat like a green card, but at a higher level of sophistication. It’s a road to citizenship for people, and essentially people of wealth or people of great talent,” Trump said in an Oval Office briefing.
The president noted that, “We’re going to be putting a price on that card of about $5 million and that’s going to give you green card privileges-plus.” Trump added that this new policy has already been approved by attorneys in his administration (“it all worked out from the legal standpoint, it’s totally legal to do”) and that he plans to implement the program in about “two weeks.”
“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,” Trump continued, noting that these funds could help pay down the national debt.
That idea, while creative, seems to fly in the face of American traditional values. While money could be raised, are we really ready to sell citizenships to the highest bidder?
Why not sell them for $10 million and we’ll only need half as many? Or $100 million?
Journalists questioned whether there would be some kind of evaluation process for those opting to buy citizenships, to which Trump responded, “They’ll be able to pay $5 million to the US government. They’ll have to go through vetting, of course, to make sure they’re wonderful world-class global citizens.” What could go wrong?
When asked specifically if Russian oligarchs, who often have attained their wealth through corruption, would be eligible, Trump said: “Yeah, possibly. I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people.”
Does that mean that every time an oligarch angers Putin and fears getting thrown out a sixth-floor window, they emigrate to the U.S?
Trump further speculated that companies like Apple would buy the cards to get the best employees. Really? 5-MIL?
I remember when IBM moved me around the country three times in seven years, I thought that was extremely expensive for the company. But I think if the price was 5-MIL, they might have left me in Lansing. I was a good employee but….
Trump predicted “we’ll be able to sell maybe a million of these cards, maybe more than that. And if you add up the numbers, they’re pretty good.” He said that perhaps ten million cards could be sold.
Typical of early 2025 programs, detailed elements of the plan were not immediately shared. It wasn’t discussed how we determine who’s naughty and who’s nice, or if Trump gets a commission.
But the primary goals of the program seem to be paying down the national debt (a great idea) and finding some better (apparently defined as richer by the administration) citizens for America.
I applaud the creative thinking, but, as one response to the program noted on X, “Nothing says champion-of-the-working-class like “we need a new, better tier of citizenship for the wealthy.””
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI, and publishes his opinions regularly.
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