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In a move that critics are blasting as both “ludicrously lawless” and a profound moral failure, President Trump signed a proclamation Friday that fundamentally overhauls the nation’s high-skilled immigration system, effectively transforming it into an extortion racket that prioritizes wealth over talent. The executive action imposes a staggering $100,000 annual fee for the H-1B visa program for skilled workers and simultaneously rolls out a $1 million “Trump Gold Card” as a pathway to citizenship for the global elite.
This is not a reform; it is the creation of a two-tiered system of entry into the United States: one for the super-rich, and another that is prohibitively expensive for the merely brilliant. The new $100,000 annual fee for an H-1B visa represents a nearly 500-fold increase from the current fee of around $215. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick made the administration’s new philosophy crystal clear: “Stop the nonsense of letting people just come into this country on visas that were given away for free. The president is crystal clear: valuable people only for America.” In this new calculus, “valuable” is defined by the ability to pay.
The administration is attempting to sell this as a pro-American worker policy, arguing the exorbitant fee will force companies to “train Americans” instead of hiring cheaper foreign labor. But immigration lawyers and tech industry experts warn that the move will be devastating for American innovation and competitiveness. “A $100,000 fee will put the brakes on American competitiveness in the tech sector and all industries,” said Jorge Lopez, an immigration attorney. Startups and small businesses, which cannot possibly afford such a fee, will be priced out of the market for global talent, while even major tech firms will be forced to move R&D jobs offshore. “We’re not going to win the AI race if we slam the door on top talent,” said Adam Kovacevich, CEO of the Chamber of Progress.
The immediate effect has been chaos. Within hours of the announcement, tech giants like Amazon were issuing urgent advisories to their H-1B employees currently abroad, telling them to “try to return before tomorrow’s deadline if possible.”
While making it nearly impossible for the world’s best and brightest engineers and scientists to work in America, the administration is simultaneously rolling out the red carpet for anyone with a seven-figure bank account. The new “Trump Gold Card” offers a path to residency for a “$1 million gift” to the country. A forthcoming “Trump Platinum Card” will cost $5 million and allow wealthy foreigners to reside in the U.S. for up to 270 days a year without being subject to U.S. taxes on their foreign income.
The legality of these moves is highly questionable. Legal experts argue that the president has “literally zero legal authority to impose a $100,000 fee on visas,” as Congress alone has the power to set such fees. “This isn’t real policy — it’s fan service for immigration restrictionists,” said Doug Rand, a former USCIS official. “Trump gets his headlines, and inflicts a jolt of panic, and doesn’t care whether this survives first contact with the courts.”
Whether other nations will retaliate in kind is now a real possibility. When the United States signals that its immigration policy is no longer about attracting global talent but about nakedly monetizing access, it invites other countries to treat American workers and businesses with the same transactional disdain. It is a move that is not only wrong on every moral level but is also a profound act of economic self-sabotage, all in the name of a quick cash grab.
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