quote:

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Long before he became one of Donald Trump’s biggest donors and campaign surrogates, South African-born Elon Musk worked illegally in the United States as he launched his entrepreneurial career after ditching a graduate studies program in California, according to former business associates, court records and company documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Musk in recent months has amplified the Republican presidential candidate’s claims that “open borders” and undocumented immigrants are destroying America, broadcasting those views to more than 200 million followers on the site formerly known as Twitter, which Musk bought in 2022 and later renamed X.

What Musk has not publicly disclosed is that he did not have the legal right to work while building the company that became Zip2, which sold for about $300 million in 1999. It was Musk’s steppingstone to Tesla and the other ventures that have made him the world’s wealthiest person — and arguably America’s most successful immigrant.

Musk and his brother, Kimbal, have often described their immigrant journey in romantic terms, as a time of personal austerity, undeterred ambition and a willingness to flout conventions. Musk arrived in Palo Alto in 1995 for a graduate degree program at Stanford University but never enrolled in courses, working instead on his start-up.

...

Kurzban said the brothers’ subsequent applications for work visas and to become U.S. permanent residents and naturalized citizens would have asked whether they worked in the United States without authorization. “If you tell them you worked illegally in the U.S., it’s highly unlikely you’d get approved,” Kurzban said.

...

“In fact, when they did fund us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants,” Kimbal said in the 2013 interview.

“Well,” Elon said.

“Yes, we were,” Kimbal said.

“I’d say it was a gray area,” Elon replied, to audience laughter.

“We were illegal immigrants,” Kimbal said flatly.

Kimbal has also said he misled U.S. federal agents to reenter the United States for a crucial investor meeting after visiting his mother in Canada. When U.S. officers searching his luggage at the airport discovered his business cards and California address, they realized he was traveling for work — without authorization.

After they turned him away, he said, he enlisted a friend to drive him over the border, telling officers they were headed to see David Letterman’s show. Officers waved them through and Kimbal made it to the meeting.

“That’s fraud on entry,” said Kurzban, the immigration expert. “That would make him inadmissible and permanently barred from the United States,” he said, unless the penalties were waived.

...

Documents obtained by The Post show that Zip2’s executives met with immigration attorney Jocelyne Lew on Feb. 21, 1996, to discuss potential visa pathways for the Musk brothers and another Canadian co-founder. Lew advised the men to downplay their leadership roles with the company and scrub their résumés of U.S. addresses that might suggest they were already living and working in the United States, the documents show.

Lew encouraged Musk to seek another student visa from the University of Pennsylvania, where he had studied as an undergraduate, the documents show. She also directed him to obtain passport-size photos that would allow him to apply to the U.S. “visa lottery,” according to the files.

...

Legal experts said Elon Musk also might have violated the law by persuading his brother to come run the company. A 1986 federal law made it a crime to knowingly hire someone who does not have work authorization. Musk said in 2003 and 2009 that he “convinced” Kimbal to come from Canada to work for his company.

Records filed with the California secretary of state show Elon Musk was the registered agent for Global Link Information Network when it incorporated in November 1995. On Feb. 26, 1996, the company listed Kimbal as president and CEO and Elon as secretary.

“I tried to get a visa, but there’s just no visa you can get to do a start-up,” Kimbal said in a 2021 interview. “I was definitely illegal.”

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Aren’t you all undocumented immigrants?

The original inhabitants of this country are living in glorified concentration camps!

quote:

Originally posted by Jefffive:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Aren’t you all undocumented immigrants?

The original inhabitants of this country are living in glorified concentration camps!

Fortunately, the original inhabitants didn't require visas, so we are more like uninvited guests who never left than actual burglars.

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:

quote:

Originally posted by Jefffive:

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Aren’t you all undocumented immigrants?

The original inhabitants of this country are living in glorified concentration camps!

Fortunately, the original inhabitants didn't require visas, so we are more like uninvited guests who never left than actual burglars.

Not it wasn’t.

Your ancestors were unwanted criminals the Brits wanted to get rid of!

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Well jeffi.
The lawyers here on PF said overstaying a valid visa, which he had for school, is not against the law.
Go back to your lie that Musk NEVER created anything. Which, with the lie, that you always admit your wrong, gives two lies right there.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Oh jeffi. The lies just dont stop with you do they.
Musk enrolled at stanford, but transferred to University of Penn after two days. He got degrees in economics and physics while there. All public record.
But please, continue making sh!t up and telling people you dont lie.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Oh jeffi. The lies just dont stop with you do they.
Musk enrolled at stanford, but transferred to University of Penn after two days. He got degrees in economics and physics while there. All public record.
But please, continue making shit up and telling people you dont lie.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Oh jeffi. The lies just dont stop with you do they.
Musk enrolled at stanford, but transferred to University of Penn after two days. He got degrees in economics and physics while there. All public record.
But please, continue making shit up and telling people you dont lie.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Well jeffi.
The lawyers here on PF said overstaying a valid visa, which he had for school, is not against the law.
Go back to your lie that Musk NEVER created anything. Which, with the lie, that you always admit your wrong, gives two lies right there.

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
Sounds about right for a Democrat. Let’s deport the guy creating thousands of high paying jobs.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
As Musks degrees were awarded in 97, his timeline of events, is just more jeffi BS.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I know the logistics of amending it. I wonder what Topic, for lack of a better word, it would take to get people together enough to get it done.
Letting a non-native born person be pres. is not going to be it.

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Mitchell:

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
Sounds about right for a Democrat. Let’s deport the guy creating thousands of high paying jobs.

Versus deporting the millions of people who do the low-paying jobs?

Makes sense....

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Mitchell:

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
Sounds about right for a Democrat. Let’s deport the guy creating thousands of high paying jobs.

Versus deporting the millions of people who do the low-paying jobs?

Makes sense....

This is forever. There is plenty, actually millions as you say, of workers. And very very few real world job creators. Your logic is the hatred you have cutting off your nose to spite your face. It’s plain for all to see right here. Your emotions override good sense. You are a woman

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
So you want to deport Elon Musk? You truly think this is wise?

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
Crawfish all you want. Your posts say otherwise.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Bertram:

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
So you want to deport Elon Musk? You truly think this is wise?

I did not say that. I said that your despising those not like you is plain to see.

I have not advocated for deporting anyone, though I do think undocumented residents who commit crimes should get deported.

The foreign workers who do low paying jobs fill a need in this country. When was the last time you heard an American youth express the desire to go in to fruit and vegetable harvesting as a career? Never.....same for quite a few other less than glorious careers.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:

quote:

Originally posted by Steve Bertram:

quote:

Originally posted by tomahawker:
So you want to deport Elon Musk? You truly think this is wise?

I did not say that. I said that your despising those not like you is plain to see.

I have not advocated for deporting anyone, though I do think undocumented residents who commit crimes should get deported.

The foreign workers who do low paying jobs fill a need in this country. When was the last time you heard an American youth express the desire to go in to fruit and vegetable harvesting as a career? Never.....same for quite a few other less than glorious careers.

I would not deport them. I would provide them w a legal status, legal recognition requiring labor laws to be enforced, and provide a path for citizenship.

Musk is no more important than those laborers.

That assumes Musk over stayed. Assuming he did, I do mot care. The man is now a Citizen. Make the path.

I cannot wait for T Hawker to have a women. He appears to have serious uses w women.

quote:

Originally posted by Jefffive:

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I know the logistics of amending it. I wonder what Topic, for lack of a better word, it would take to get people together enough to get it done.
Letting a non-native born person be pres. is not going to be it.

Getting rid of the last lingering vestige of slavery, the Electoral College, would be a fine place to start. Amending the definition of "treason" to recognize that traitors don't need a declared war to betray the Country would be another.

quote:

Originally posted by Jefffive:

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I know the logistics of amending it. I wonder what Topic, for lack of a better word, it would take to get people together enough to get it done.
Letting a non-native born person be pres. is not going to be it.

Getting rid of the last lingering vestige of slavery, the Electoral College, would be a fine place to start. Amending the definition of "treason" to recognize that traitors don't need a declared war to betray the Country would be another.

quote:

Originally posted by LHeym500:

quote:

Originally posted by Jefffive:

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
I know the logistics of amending it. I wonder what Topic, for lack of a better word, it would take to get people together enough to get it done.
Letting a non-native born person be pres. is not going to be it.

Getting rid of the last lingering vestige of slavery, the Electoral College, would be a fine place to start. Amending the definition of "treason" to recognize that traitors don't need a declared war to betray the Country would be another.

I disagree. A citizen is a citizen. GOP was all for it when Arnold Schwarzenegger got elected. The last R you will see be the Gov of California. When the Constitution was written we did not believe, create, nor want a base level of citizenship. We now have that, with the 14th Amendment. This is dispute the far right’s attempts to destroy it.

A citizen a citizen. That has to mean something regardless of where one is standing.