Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick defended President Trump’s proposed idea to replace the EB-5 investor visa on Wednesday, saying “250,000 people are waiting in line now” to get a “gold card.”
The president on Tuesday floated the idea of selling a gold card to foreign investors for $5 million.
“It’s going to give you green card privileges,” he said, “plus it’s going to be a route to citizenship, and wealthy people will be coming into our country by buying this card. 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, and we think it’s going to be extremely successful."
During an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Lutnick assured viewers applicants would be vetted.
"These are going to be great global citizens who are going to bring entrepreneurial spirit, capacity and growth to America,” Lutnick said. “If one of them comes in, think of the jobs they're going to bring with them, the businesses they're going to bring with them, and they're going to pay American taxes as well. So this is huge money for America."
Given the number of individuals in line, Lutnick said that would bring in $1.25 trillion for the U.S.
"Imagine if we sell a million of them. That's $5 trillion, and that pays off our debt, drives down interest rates and makes America amazing," Lutnick noted.
On Tuesday, the Commerce secretary argued the current EB-5 program is "full of nonsense, make-believe and fraud."
Established in 1990, the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is available to investors who "make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States" and "plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers," according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"It was a way to get a green card that was low price," Lutnick said. "So the president said, rather than having this sort of ridiculous EB-5 program, we're going to end the EB-5 program. We're going to replace it with the Trump gold card."