On Feb. 25, President Donald Trump announced his plan to start selling a five-million-dollar “gold card” visa to immigrants as a fast track to American citizenship. He is attempting to attract wealthy foreigners to America while cutting United States (U.S.) deficits. The proposed top-tier citizenship visa has yet to be approved by Congress, but Trump is making efforts for this plan to be implemented without the help of Congress.

Throughout Trump’s second presidential term, he has passed various orders leading to the deportation of nearly five thousand Latin American immigrants, according to Statista. However, his new proposed plan is his first intended to attract immigrants.
Redwood parent and United Kingdom immigrant, Alex Titcombe, came to the U.S. from Wales in 1998 on work visas funded by her company. She earned her citizenship in 2010.
“[Gaining citizenship] took a lot of time with many lawyers involved which is not inexpensive… there are only a finite number of visas that are given so it is unfair when you base it off of someone’s financial situation,” Titcombe said.
Gaining citizenship in the U.S. is often a lengthy and expensive process, requiring thousands of dollars and sometimes up to 24 months to be processed. In many cases, even when lawyers are involved, citizenship can still be denied.
“The real question is, ‘Why can’t these wealthy individuals go through the same process as everyone else?’” Titcombe said.
According to Statista, Europe is home to the most people in the top one percent of global wealth, followed by Asia, with Latin America having the second-fewest. However, approximately 50 percent of America’s workforce is Hispanic. This proposed visa is the first policy that encourages immigration into the country and is targeting extremely rich individuals that make up a much smaller part of America’s workforce.
“Shutting down borders and sending people home is not saying that America is the safe haven that it used to be and goes against some of America’s foundations that it is a melting pot and welcoming to all,” Titcombe said.
Junior Jack Wilkins moved from London to Marin in 2019 and received his green card the same year. For Wilkins, the process of getting a green card was fairly easy. However, many people don’t have that same experience.

“Every time [my family and I] would have to go to a facility to get interviews, so many people had been [to the facility] so many times and had to wait in these long queues,” Wilkins said.
The UK is considered to have a relatively friendly immigration policy with most immigrants coming from India, Poland, Pakistan and Ireland.
“England lets [many immigrants] in the country, which can be problematic. [However,] I think [in America, the immigration policies] are too strict. Having a medium strictness to [American immigration policies] would probably be best,” Wilkins said.