Anti-immigrant immigrant billionaire Elon Musk illegally lived and worked in the United States while founding his first American business venture, a report alleges.
According to the Washington Post, Musk planned to enroll in a Stanford University PhD program to obtain a student visa while cofounding tech company Zip2, but dropped out days before classes began. Legal experts told the paper that the move invalidated his right to work in the country.
“If you do anything that helps to facilitate revenue creation, such as design code or try to make sales in furtherance of revenue creation, then you’re in trouble,” DOJ immigration litigator Leon Fresco told the Post.
Musk’s status led some investors to question his status and demand he obtain a proper visa.
“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.,” then-Zip2 board member Derek Proudian told the Post.
The Tesla chief executive previously characterized his visa status during the period as a “gray area,” while his brother Kimbal Musk described him and Elon as “illegal immigrants” in 2013.
Though it’s not clear whether Musk lied to American authorities, legal experts noted that had Musk told immigration officials that he illegally overstayed, subsequent visas and citizenship applications would have been at risk.
Now the world’s richest man, Musk has tossed his full-throated support and tens of millions of dollars behind Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid, citing illegal immigration as a top concern. Musk has personally amplified violent conspiracy theories against Haitians and Venezuelans living within the U.S. and vocally backed Trump’s scheme for a “bloody” mass deportation.
