South African-born Elon Musk has become one of the biggest critics of illegal immigration in the United States, but the billionaire had his own questionable immigration status when he founded his first company in the 1990s.
Although Musk, now 53, entered the country legally on a student visa for Stanford in 1995, he never actually enrolled at the prestigious California school.
Instead, two days into the semester, he called the department head to tell them he was not going to attend, which should have prompted his immediate departure from the country since he had no legal right to stay, according to Washington Post.
However, the entrepreneur did not leave the United States and remained in the country as an illegal immigrant to found his first company Zip2, a moment in his impressive career that he simply calls a “gray area.”
Now, the founder of Telsa and SpaceX is a leading critic of the US border crisis and recently criticized the Biden Administration for turning a blind eye to rising immigration rates from the US-Mexico border.
The world’s richest man, who has a staggering net worth of nearly $270 billion, has even become one of Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump’s biggest donors ahead of the 2024 election next month.
South African-born Elon Musk (pictured wearing a MAGA hat in October) has become a vocal critic of illegal immigration.
Although Musk, now 53 (pictured in 2004), entered the country legally on a student visa for Stanford in 1995, he never actually enrolled at the prestigious California school, which should have prompted his immediate departure. of the country, since he had no legal rights. stay
Musk has set out to help Trump amplify his claims that an “open border” and the influx of 2 million migrants who have crossed the southern border into the United States in the past 12 months have destroyed the United States.
The immigration issue is a central part of the 2024 elections, as major US cities, including New York and Los Angeles, have come under the weight of newcomers.
Despite his strong comments on the current immigration issue, Musk has remained largely silent about his own immigration history.
His brother, Kimbal, on the other hand, publicly acknowledged that the couple were illegal immigrants to the country in the Zip2 era during a interview 2013where he admitted that the brothers slept in his office and showered at the YMCA.
Kimbal revealed that investors knew of his immigration status when they began funding the board company they were building.
“In fact, when they financed us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants,” he said in the interview.
“Well,” Musk responded.
“Yes, we were,” his brother lamented, to which the billionaire responded, “I’d say it’s a gray area.”
“We were illegal immigrants,” Kimbal reminded his brother flatly.
The entrepreneur (pictured with Trump in October) did not leave the US when he violated the terms of his visa and remained in the country as an illegal immigrant to start his first company Zip2, a moment in his impressive career that he simply calls a ‘gray zone’
Musk has set out to help Trump amplify his claims that an “open border” and the influx of two million migrants who have crossed the southern border into the US in the last 12 months have destroyed the United States (in photo: Eagle Pass, TX, in September 2023)
It’s a little-known fact that Musk has largely kept under wraps as he retells his success story, which includes the successful (albeit controversial) acquisition of Twitter, which he later rebranded as X.
Musk was also involved in co-founding PayPal, which was transferred to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2002; the acquisition of SolarCity, owned by his cousins; and co-founded OpenAI in 2015 before leaving the board in 2018.
Zip2, his first creation, was sold to Compaq Computer Corporation in 1999 for $300 million, according to The Washington Post.
Musk likes to tell his story as a journey of personal growth and ambition, leaving out the illegal parts of his success.
Foreign students are not allowed to leave school and start businesses while maintaining their visa status, according to former Justice Department immigration litigator León Fresco.
“If you do anything that helps facilitate revenue creation, like designing code or trying to make sales to promote revenue creation, then you’re in trouble,” he told The Washington Post.
For Zip2 to become a public company, it would have to come under the scrutiny of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, its former partners told the DC-based outlet.
When Mohr Daidow Ventures offered Musk and his team $3 million in 1996, one of the rules of the deal was that the brothers had to obtain legal employment status within 45 days or the money would not arrive.
Elon’s brother Kimbal publicly acknowledged that the couple was illegal in the country in the Zip2 era during a 2013 interview. The brothers received work authorizations in 1997 (pictured: Elon Musk in 2004)
“We don’t want our founder to be deported,” Derek Proudian, a member of Zip2’s board of directors, told the outlet. “We want to take care of this long before there’s anything that could mess it up.”
According to six former coworkers, Musk told others that he was working on a student visa, The Washington Post reported.
In 2020, the father of 12 maintained that he had a student and work visa after deferring his stay at Stanford and that he was “legally there.”
“But I was supposed to do student work,” he admitted in a podcast, according to The Post. “They allowed me to work to support whatever.”
However, in a 2005 email to Telsa co-founder Martin Eberhard and JB Straubel, which was obtained by The Post, Musk admitted that he was not actually authorized to work in the United States at the time.
“I didn’t really care much about the career, but I had no money for a lab and no legal right to stay in the country, so it seemed like a good way to resolve both issues,” he had written. “Then the Internet came along, which seemed like a much safer bet.”
The brothers had met with immigration attorney Jocelyne Lew in February 1996, who encouraged them to downplay their role in Zip2 and apply for the U.S. visa lottery, according to The Post.
The brothers received work authorizations in 1997, according to Proudian.
DailyMail.com has contacted Musk for comment.
