Challenging Trump’s Illegal Pay-to-Play Visa Program
Public Citizen News / March-April 2026
By Adam Pulver
This article appeared in the March/April 2026 edition of Public Citizen News. Download the full edition here.
Should multi-millionaires get to spend their way to preferential treatment in the U.S. immigration system, at the expense of others who qualify for a U.S. visa on merit? Public Citizen says no — and has gone to court to stop what it calls an unlawful “pay-to-play” visa program created by the Trump administration.
In September 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the secretaries of Commerce, Homeland Security, and State to establish a “Gold Card” visa program. Under the program, wealthy individuals would be able to bypass standard procedures for obtaining certain immigrant visas by making large donations. Soon after the order, the agencies announced that the program was underway.
Like other Trump administration programs and policies, the Gold Card scheme favors the rich. It allows foreign people who donate at least $1 million to the federal government – or corporations that donate at least $2 million — plus a nonrefundable $15,000 processing fee, to buy eligibility for a limited number of EB-1 and EB-2 visas, even if they do not meet the statutory requirements. Congress created these visa categories to admit foreign nationals with extraordinary abilities so they could contribute to the work of U.S. universities, laboratories, and other institutions. Eligibility for visas in these categories turns on talent, achievement, and professional qualifications — not wealth. The program also grants donors special priority in having their applications processed.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has boasted that he “sold” 1,000 Gold Cards in a single day, telling prospective donors they could pay to “have the right to be in America.”
Prioritizing the processing of applications for millionaire donors increases wait times for researchers, scholars, artists, and other qualified applicants without vast financial resources. Because the total number of EB-1 and EB-2 visas is capped each year, wealthy donors may take slots from qualified applicants.
“This case concerns yet another of the many instances in which this administration is defying federal statutes to advance short-term policy preferences,” said Allison Zieve, director of Public Citizen Litigation Group and one of the organization’s lawyers working on the case. “It also concerns yet another of the many instances in which this administration is defying the Constitution, under which no administration—and no president—is above the law.”
Congress set specific eligibility requirements for EB-1 and EB-2 visas, and being rich enough to make million-dollar donations to the United States is not one of them.
In January, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit challenging the program. Along with Democracy Defenders Fund and the law firm Colombo & Hurd, we brought the lawsuit on behalf of the American Association of University Professors, which represents higher education employees nationwide, and six professionals from around the world who have applied for, or intend to apply for, EB-1 or EB-2 visas under the criteria established by law. The lawsuit, American Association of University Professors v. Department of Homeland Security, contends that the Gold Card program violates the statutory framework governing EB-1 and EB-2 visas. It also argues that the administration lacked authority to create the program, that prioritizing wealthy donors over qualified applicants is arbitrary and capricious, and that the government failed to provide notice and an opportunity for public comment before implementing the program.
The plaintiffs are asking the district court to set aside the Gold Card program and declare it unlawful.