Elon Musk and former college swimmer Riley Gaines are calling for faster legal immigration options.
Gaines followed Musk’s recent immigration comments on social media, revealing that her own immigrant husband has been waiting for a green card for two years.
The Tesla and Twitter boss said his frequent complaints about the migrant crisis led to him being accused of being ‘anti-immigrant’.
However, he explained that as an immigrant himself – born in South Africa and moving to the US for university – “nothing could be further from the truth.”
“I strongly support increased and accelerated legal immigration for anyone who is talented, hardworking and honest,” he wrote on Twitter.
‘It’s crazy difficult and painfully slow to immigrate to the US legally, but trivial and fast to enter illegally! This obviously makes no sense.’
Elon Musk said his frequent complaints about the migrant crisis led to him being accused of being ‘anti-immigrant’, but he actually wanted more of it through the proper channels
At the height of the crisis over the New Year, around 10,000 migrants crossed the border every day and surrendered to authorities to seek asylum
Musk moved to Canada at the age of 18 and was granted citizenship through his mother, and a few years later he attended the University of Pennsylvania and then came to Silicon Valley.
Gaines reposted Musk’s tweet with enthusiastic approval. She did not comment directly on the border crisis, but has denounced it in the past.
‘My husband is an immigrant. We’ve been married almost two years and he still doesn’t have a green card,” she wrote.
Musk’s tweet presented a misleading equivalency between the thousands of asylum seekers crossing the border every day and the process of obtaining permanent residency in the US.
Migrants who cross the border and surrender to authorities are largely allowed to remain in the U.S., but only until their asylum claims are heard.
If their claim is denied, they will be sent back to their country of origin. If accepted, they would undergo the same lengthy process as Gaines’ husband to get a green card.
The problem is that the process takes months or years due to bottlenecks in the system, and even more so due to the wave of migrants over the past eighteen months.
Gaines reposted Musk’s tweet with enthusiastic approval, revealing her immigrant husband was frustrated waiting for his green card
Migrants cross the Rio Grande River to surrender to U.S. authorities in El Paso, Texas
President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address that the bipartisan immigration bill passed in the Senate would shorten the processing time to six months or even six weeks.
However, the legislation was killed in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives at the insistence of Donald Trump, who wanted to use the issue against Biden in the election campaign.
If the bill is implemented in practice, as Biden promised in his speech, it would accelerate opportunities for legal immigration, as Musk and Gaines called for.
Musk has accused Democrats in recent days of eyeing the border crisis as part of a long-term strategy to improve their electoral fortunes.
“Until the loss of votes from bringing in large numbers of illegal immigrants exceeds the likely gain in votes over time (as these are gradually legalized), the Democratic Party has a strong incentive to maximize illegal immigration,” wrote he.
At least 4.35 million migrants have entered Texas since 2021, according to US Customs and Border Protection, the parent agency of the US Border Patrol. These numbers reflect only those stopped by federal agents, and not so-called “escapees” or illegal immigrants who were not taken into custody
In another post, he claimed the crisis was likely to lead to a major terrorist attack.
“This administration is importing voters and creating a national security threat through unvetted illegal immigrants,” he wrote.
‘It is very likely that the groundwork is being laid for something much worse than 9/11. Just a matter of time.’
Musk expanded on this on Friday, criticizing Democrats for unanimously opposing a bill that would not count immigrants in the population figures used to determine the number of congressional seats and electoral votes per state.
“Since illegals are concentrated in Democratic states, both the House of Representatives and the presidential election have shifted ~5% to the left, which is enough to change the entire balance of power!” He wrote.
“This is a key reason why the Biden administration is ushering in record numbers of illegal aliens and carrying out so few deportations.”
Musk also responded to Biden’s admission that 325,000 migrants had been flown into the US by the government to ease pressure on the border.
He called it “treason” and again accused Democrats of “importing voters.”
“This is why groups on the far left are fighting so hard to stop voter ID requirements under the absurd guise of protecting voting rights,” he wrote.
It was not clear whether he was claiming that Democrats were encouraging voter fraud by non-citizen immigrants by opposing ID requirements.
Flying migrants to the US was part of the long-standing “humanitarian parole” and applies to Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans.
These migrants, capped at 30,000 per month, must pass a background check and have a sponsor in the US, and can obtain work permits.
“Humanitarian parole does not provide any permanent opportunity to remain in the U.S. and may be revoked or not renewed if DHS determines it is no longer warranted or if the beneficiary violates the terms of the parole,” American Immigration explained Council out.
Musk also responded to Biden’s admission that 325,000 migrants had been flown into the US by the government to ease pressure on the border.
Texas has bused more than 105,000 migrants to so-called sanctuary cities since 2022, the governor’s office announced Friday.
All these migrants have registered through the designated channels and have not crossed the border, otherwise they would not be eligible for the program.
At the height of the crisis over the New Year, around 10,000 migrants crossed the border every day and surrendered to authorities to seek asylum.
Texas has borne the brunt of the crossings, especially at Eagle Pass, and Governor Gregg Abbott responded by sending 105,000 people to Democratic-run “sanctuary cities” like New York, Chicago and Denver.
Most of the migrants are Venezuelans, seven million of whom have fled political unrest and violence in their country in recent years.
