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#Musk’s #DOGE Team Is Building a System to Sell #Trump’s ‘#GoldCard

Members of #ElonMusk’s …task force are building a system for the #UnitedStates to sell special #immigration #visas, which Trump has labeled “gold cards,” for $5 million apiece.

Engineers associated w/DOGE have been working w/employees from the #State Dept, #DHS & #USCIS to create a website & application process for the visas.

#law #corruption #oligarchs #terrorism #NationalSecurity #CitizenshipForSale
nytimes.com/2025/04/16/us/poli

President Trump showed off a “gold card,” his idea for a $5 million immigrant visa, on Air Force One earlier this month.
The New York Times · Elon Musk’s DOGE Team Building System to Sell ‘Gold Card’ Immigrant VisasBy Ryan Mac
Continued thread

In an early March announcement that was underreported at the time (but just became a lot more relevant in early April) the Trump regime revealed its intention to collect and presumably monitor social media handles of folks applying to legally work and reside in the United States:

theintercept.com/2025/03/23/tr

Trump Wants Immigrants on U.S. Soil to Hand Over Social Media Accounts to Apply for Citizenship

"Collecting social media information, according to the USCIS proposal first posted March 5, is necessary “for the enhanced identity verification, vetting and national security screening.”

The proposal specifically cites Trump’s January 20 executive order, which advocates have warned goes well beyond the Muslim travel ban from Trump’s first term, which targeted people living abroad.

The new executive order stated that “the United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”

USCIS said the social media handles it collects would be used to determine if people applying for a variety of immigration statuses pose a “security or public-safety threat.”"

Of course, observers immediately noted the connection between this proposed policy and Trump's ideological policing, kidnaping, and attempted deportation of foreign students who participated in anti-Genocide protests and/or oppose the Trump regime:

"In light of Columbia University protester Mahmoud Khalil’s ongoing detention, one official from a Muslim civil rights group said the new policy poses special danger for critics of Israel and the Trump administration.

“This policy would disparately impact Muslim and Arab applicants seeking U.S. citizenship that have voiced support for Palestinian human rights,” said Robert McCaw, director of government affairs at the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “Collecting the social media identifiers of any potential green card applicants or citizens is the means to silencing their lawful speech.”

Furthermore, as a representative of the EFF presciently observed, there are few if any limits on the scope of what the government can do with this data if they get it, and modern AI technology allows for the regime to ideologically police and target a terrifying number of people who oppose our fascist overlords. It's also, strictly speaking, a violation of Constitutional rights:

"The policy proposal does not sketch out limits on how USCIS can use its newly acquired data, according to Saira Hussain, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Hussain said she was particularly concerned that the government might use artificial intelligence or other automated tools to punish speech it dislikes, pointing to a news report that the State Department is using AI to revoke the visas of people who allegedly express “pro-Hamas” sentiments.

Hussain said she feared a chilling effect, where people applying for a change in status refrain from speaking about potentially controversial issues.

“Anybody who is within the bounds of the United States has First Amendment rights,” she said. “The Constitution applies whether you are somebody who is a citizen or somebody who is a green card holder who is here in the United States. I think that this administration is trying to chip away at that notion, but that is very much what First Amendment jurisprudence has been under the courts.”

Finally, it should be pointed out that the regime's proposal gives no indication whatsoever of when the government would stop recording and monitoring the social media activities of the people it's targeting:

"CAIR’s McCaw said he worried that the policy could be used to continue tracking people’s activity on social media even after they become naturalized citizens.

“There’s no clear sign on when this intrusion into our electronics and communications will end,” he said."

The Intercept · Trump Wants Immigrants on U.S. Soil to Hand Over Social Media Accounts to Apply for CitizenshipBy Matt Sledge
#Fascism#DHS#ICE

"The Trump administration may soon demand the social media accounts of people applying for green cards, US citizenship, and asylum or refugee status. US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — the federal agency that oversees legal migration, proposed the new policy in the Federal Register this week — calling this information “necessary for a rigorous vetting and screening” of all people applying for “immigration-related benefits.”

In its Federal Register notice, USCIS said the proposed social media surveillance policy is needed to comply with President Trump’s “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats” executive order, issued on his first day in office. That order requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other government agencies to “identify all resources that may be used to ensure that all aliens seeking admission to the United States, or who are already in the United States, are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”"

theverge.com/policy/624945/tru

The Verge · The Trump administration wants to review all prospective citizens’ social media accountsBy Gaby Del Valle
#USA#Trump#USCIS

Die #Trump #Regierung will alle Social-Media-Konten potenzieller Bürger überprüfen: Personen, die die US-Staatsbürgerschaft, Asyl oder eine #Green Card beantragen, müssen der Regierung möglicherweise bald ihre Social-Media-Profile offenlegen. Trump will per Anordung sicherstellen, dass alle Ausländer, die in die #USA einreisen oder sich bereits dort befinden im größtmöglichen Umfang überprüft und kontrolliert werden...

theverge.com/policy/624945/tru

The Verge · The Trump administration wants to review all prospective citizens’ social media accountsBy Gaby Del Valle
Replied in thread

@jayinkyiv

The #DHS's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services really should look into #ElonMusk's naturalization file.

#NATO is fighting all but an official proxy war in #Ukraine against the #Russian aggressor.

This is not free speech. This is aiding and abetting the enemy. Some might even call these remarks #treasonous.

Also, it is a shame and a #SecurityRisk that #USCIS.gov is only on billionaire's-owned social-media platforms, including #Twitter, and not on #Mastodon.