Trump's gold card programme goes live, offering US visas starting at USD 1 million per person
Washington (AP): President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that his long-promised "gold card" was officially going on sale, offering legal status and an eventual pathway to US citizenship for individuals paying USD 1 million and corporations ponying up twice that per foreign-born employee.
A website accepting applications went live as Trump revealed the start of the programme while surrounded by business leaders in the White House's Roosevelt Room. It is meant to replace EB-5 visas, which Congress created in 1990 to generate foreign investment and had been available to people who spend about USD 1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.
Trump sees the new version as a way for the US to attract and retain top talent, all while generating revenue for federal coffers. He has been promoting the gold card programme for months, and once suggested that each card would cost USD 5 million, though he more recently revised that to the USD 1 million and USD 2 million pricing scheme.
The president said all funds taken in as part of the programme will "go to the US government" and predicted that billions would flow into an account run by the Treasury Department "where we can do things positive for the country."
The new programme is actually a green card, effectively offering permanent legal residency with the chance for citizenship.
"Basically, it's a green card but much better," Trump said. "Much more powerful, a much stronger path."
The president made no mention of requirements for job creation for applying corporations or on overall caps on the programme, which exist under the current EB-5 programme. Instead, he said he had heard complaints from business leaders who had been unable to recruit outstanding graduates from US universities because they were from other countries and lacked permission to stay.
"You can't hire people from the best colleges because you don't know whether or not you can keep the person," Trump said.
Trump has built his political career around clamping down on the US-Mexico border and championing hard-line immigration policies. His second administration spent its first 10-plus months launching mass deportation pushes and sweeping immigration crackdowns that have targeted cities including Los Angeles and Charlotte.
But he has also drawn criticism from leading voices of his "Make America Great Again" movement for repeatedly suggesting that skilled immigrants should be allowed into the US -- something the gold card programme could facilitate.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the programme will include USD 15,000 for applicant vetting and that the thorough process used to scrutinise backgrounds would "make sure these people absolutely qualify to be in America." Companies will be able to receive multiple cards, but will be limited to one individual per card, he said.
Lutnick also said the current green card holders earn less money than the average American, and that Trump wanted to change that.
"So, same visas, but now just full of the best people," Lutnick said.
Investors' visas are common around the world, with dozens of countries offering versions of "golden visas" to wealthy individuals, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Malta, Australia, Canada and Italy.
Trump said the programme means the US is "getting somebody great coming into our country because we think these will be some tremendous people" and singled out top US college graduates from China, India and France as among those who will possibly be receiving gold cards.
"The companies are going to be very happy," he said.
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SC rejects Sanjiv Bhatt's plea seeking suspension of sentence in 1996 drug seizure case
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea filed by former IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt seeking seeking suspension of the 20-year jail sentence imposed on him in a 1996 drug seizure case.
A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi said it was not inclined to entertain the matter.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Bhatt seeking suspension of sentence in the case.
A sessions court in Palanpur town of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district had sentenced Bhatt to 20 years in the case dating back to 1996.
Bhatt was found guilty of falsely implicating a Rajasthan-based lawyer by claiming that in 1996, police had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur where the lawyer was staying.
Bhatt, who was sacked from service in 2015, was a superintendent of police in Banaskantha district in 1996.
The district police under him had arrested Sumersingh Rajpurohit, a Rajasthan-based lawyer, in 1996 claiming they had seized drugs from a hotel room in Palanpur town where he was staying.
However, the Rajasthan police later said Rajpurohit was falsely implicated by the Banaskantha police to compel him to transfer a disputed property located at Pali in Rajasthan.
Former police inspector I B Vyas had moved the Gujarat High Court in 1999 demanding a thorough inquiry into the case. Bhatt was arrested by the state CID in September 2018 in the drug case under the NDPS Act and is in Palanpur sub-jail since then.
Last year, the former IPS officer had approached the Supreme Court seeking transfer of the trial in the 28-year-old drug case to another sessions court alleging bias. He had also sought directions for recording of the trial court proceedings.
However, the Supreme Court had dismissed Bhatt’s plea and imposed a cost of Rs 3 lakh on him for alleging bias against a lower court judge conducting his trial in the drug planting case.
