Golden Visas, Closed Borders
Trump’s Immigration Agenda Rewards Billionaires While Blocking Refugees
The United States’ new travel ban, which took effect on June 9, blocks all visa applications from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, and Haiti. The stated justification is national security. The reality is exclusion.
Thousands of Afghan allies, including interpreters, journalists, and women’s rights activists, are now locked out, despite years of vetting and U.S. promises. Iranian students, Sudanese doctors, Haitian families fleeing state collapse are all swept into a ban designed not to protect, but to deter.
When Stephen Miller was asked in 2017 how this policy squared with the Statue of Liberty’s promise to the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” his response was blunt: “The poem … was added later. It’s not actually part of the original Statue of Liberty.”
It was a rejection not just of immigrants, but of the very idea that America is a refuge.
And the cruelty doesn’t stop at the ban. Even nationals from partially restricted countries like Cuba, which already faces U.S. sanctions and visa barriers, are now further locked out, even if they could afford legal entry. Cubans are no longer eligible to obtain student, business, or tourist visas under the new rules. Wealth doesn’t even buy access, unless it’s the right kind of wealth.
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Golden Gatekeeping: Visas for the Rich, Bans for the Rest
While desperate families are barred from entry, a parallel path is being built, but only for the ultra-wealthy.
Called the “Trump Card,” it’s pitched as a $5 million shortcut to a green card. No job creation. No merit-based evaluation. Just cash. The program doesn’t exist in law. There is no bill, no statute, no congressional vote, yet federal resources are already in motion.
Enter DOGE: the Department of Government Efficiency, an executive-branch advisory project, not a federal agency. Still, it has the authority to dispatch “special government employees.” Among them is Edward Coristine, alias “Big Balls”, who has been hired full-time since May 31 and earns top-tier federal pay to build web portals and tech infrastructure aimed at processing these Golden Visas.
Essentially, taxpayer money is funding a fantasy program, a visa system that’s not legal and may never be, while refugees are detained, deported, and blocked by the same administration.
The message is blatant: If you’re fleeing violence, we’ll close the door. If you’re filthy rich, we’ll code one for you.
Yeah, we’ve covered this scam before. Read more here:
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Money for Force, Not for People
While federal agencies face mass layoffs and public programs teeter on the edge of collapse, the government is spending big, just not on the people who need it.
Over 400,000 federal workers have been terminated or reassigned under Trump’s expanded Schedule F and DOGE. Congress is slashing public programs to balance the books, and yet spending billions on suppression.
$134 million for the deployment of troops to Los Angeles, where Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth defended the operation: “It is lawful and constitutional,” yet could not cite a single statute when pressed in Congress.
$40 million for a military parade in D.C., where Trump warned protesters: “They will be met with very big force.”
Undisclosed millions to fund a golden visa web portal for billionaires, built by politically connected operatives inside a shadowy “efficiency” advisory group.
Expanded ICE raids, detainment facilities, and deportations to third countries, all while agencies handling basic services face cuts or chaos.
And here’s the kicker: the U.S. already has a legal visa program for wealthy investors — the EB-5 program, which requires investment and job creation, and was overhauled in 2022 to increase transparency. But that wasn’t enough. Trump’s vision isn’t about jobs or public benefits. It’s about access, bought, not earned.
It’s not austerity. It’s a reallocation of power from food assistance to force, from relief to repression.
The America They’re Building
This isn’t dysfunction. It’s design.
The travel ban. The billionaire visa. The ICE raids. The layoffs. The parade. The tanks. They’re not isolated headlines. They’re pieces of a whole. A deliberate reengineering of government to serve money, muscle, and spectacle.
Amid mass protests in Los Angeles against ICE raids, Trump declared: “We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again.” He called the demonstrators “animals.” He described immigrants as “foreign invaders.”
This isn’t law and order. It’s rebranding authoritarianism as governance. Tanks for parades. Tech bros for policy. A $5 million fast-pass for the global elite. And behind it all, the old promise etched in bronze, buried, mocked, and dismissed as an afterthought.
This is not about fixing a broken system. It’s about building a new one where belonging is purchased, dissent is punished, and the public is told to settle for less while billionaires are promised more.
So yes, there is a pattern. And yes, it’s toxic. And it’s time to name it — OLIGARCHY.
What You Can Do
This isn’t just policy; it’s a moral test, and silence is complicity.
Show up
Find and attend a local “No Kings Day” protest or community action. Stand with those being targeted. Stand against the spectacle.Call your representatives
Dial the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224‑3121 to be connected to your senators or House representative. Here’s a script to start with:“Hi, my name is [Your Name], and I’m a constituent from [Your City, ZIP Code]. I’m calling to demand you speak out against the Trump administration’s travel ban, the use of federal funds to militarize protests, and the proposed $5 million ‘Trump Card’ visa. We need leaders who defend human dignity, not authoritarian policies. I urge you to block funding for these programs and publicly oppose them.”
Organize and vote
Change happens from the ground up. Local elections matter. State races matter. Mobilize now.Stay loud
Share this. Talk about it. Disrupt the narrative. Make it impossible to ignore what’s being built in our name.
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Bibliography:
“Troop Deployment to Los Angeles about Maintaining Law and Order, Pentagon Chief Says.” Reuters, June 11, 2025.
“Hegseth Faces Sharp Questions from Congress on Deploying Troops to LA and Pentagon Spending.” Associated Press, June 11, 2025.
“Hegseth Says Troop Deployment to LA Is Lawful and Constitutional.” Politico, June 11, 2025.
“Hegseth in Angry Clashes Over Eye‑Watering Bill for L.A. Troops.” The Daily Beast, June 10, 2025.
“Trump’s Mobilization of Troops in LA to Cost Americans at Least $134 M, Hegseth Says.” The Guardian, June 10, 2025.
“Trump’s ‘Gold Card’ Visa Program Would Offer U.S. Residency for $5 Million.” Moneycontrol, April 17, 2025.
“Trump Adviser Stephen Miller Undermines Poem’s Connection To Statue of Liberty.” NPR, August 3, 2017.
“Trump Aide Dismisses Statue of Liberty ‘Huddled Masses’ Poem.” CBS News, August 3, 2017.
Waxman, Olivia B. “The Poem on the Statue of Liberty Was ‘Added Later’ — But There’s More to That Story.” Time, August 2, 2017.
“Trump Adviser Gets into Heated Exchange with Reporter over Statue.” ABC News, August 3, 2017.
“Is Nothing Sacred? Now Trump’s White House Is Targeting the Statue …” The Guardian, August 3, 2017.
“Donald Trump’s Gold Card Will Be Available Soon; Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Building Software for Special Immigration U.S. Visa.” NDTV, April 2025.
“Trump’s “Gold Card” Immigration Grift Might Actually Be Happening.” Vanity Fair, April 2025.
“Elon Musk’s DOGE Engineers are Building the System for ‘Gold Card’ Immigrant Visa Project.” Times of India (Tech Desk), April 17, 2025.
“Hegseth Says Troop Deployment to LA Is 'Constitutional'.” Facebook/Reuters, June 2025.
“‘Trump Card’ Visa Is Already Showing Up in Immigration Forms.” Wired, May 2025.
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We have 2 senators, two. They threw him to the ground and handcuffed him inside a federal building where he was doing his job. A briefing was scheduled. Je identified himself before he spoke.
PARDON MY ENGLISH, WHAT THE FUCK.
To be clear. If this was done to Noem I would be outraged. My language would be the same.
Believe me, I know how profoundly racist and ignorant Americans are. Not because they think I’m one of them, but BECAUSE, they think I am one of them.
I have seen it all, displayed up close and personal.
It’s not about race, it’s about hate. These people will sort your white assets out and watch out.
Asses and assets…..
I've lost confidence that the Cavalry would ever save our nation. The motherfucker trump and the MAGA assholes have already destroyed so much of it, I can't relate to what we have witnessed this far. The ineffective DEMS are incapable of blocking them, and no Cavalry will liberate us from the inferno we are living in. Moving to Canda.