Donald Trump cheerleader who advocates for a harsh stance toward illegal immigration into the US allegedly worked illegally in the country himself, according to reports.
The Tesla and X/ boss, originally from South Africa, has vigorously campaigned for Mr Trump this election cycle and has endorsed the Republican's tough rhetoric on clamping down on illegal immigration. while stating he wants more people to enter the country legally.
An X/Twitter post shared today is typical of his view, he said: "It is literally easier for a serial killer to get into America than a Nobel Prize winner." But now, it's been reported Mr Musk worked illegally in the US after he launched his career after dropping out of a graduate studies program in California.
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Mr Musk is alleged to have not had the legal right to work in the US when he worked to create the company that would go on to become Zip2, reports The . He later sold the company for an estimated $300 million (£231 million) in 1999.
The billionaire and his brother, Kimbal, have shared their immigrant story as a time of personal hardship. He arrived in Palo Alto, near San Francisco, in 1995 where he had meant to attend a graduate degree programme - but he chose to work on the company rather than enrol.
As he did not attend the school, he had no legal basis to remain in the US. Leon Fressco, a former Justice Department immigration litigator, told the Washington Post: "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."
The Washington Post said it obtained a copy of a funding agreement Mr Musk arranged with Mohr Davidow ventures over a multi-million dollar investment into the company where it said the Musk brothers had 45 days to obtain legal work status.
Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member at the time said: "Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the US." He added of investors and himself: "We don't want our founder being deported."
The SpaceX chief joked in 2013 that he had been in a "grey area" in regard to his legal status during the early phase of his career. He claimed in 2020 that he had a "student-work visa" after he deferred his Stanford University studies."
According to The Washington Post, Musk said in a 2005 late-night email that he did not have authorization to be in the US when he founded Zip2. He claimed in a previous California defamation lawsuit that he applied to Stanford so he could legally remain in the US.
After not enrolling, Mr Musk would be required to leave the US according to legal experts in the country's immigration laws. Overstaying a student visa is a common occurrence in the US, although it remains illegal.
Mr Musk has claimed the Democrats are "importing voters" into the US. Undocumented immigrants are not allowed to vote in both state and federal elections in the US. According to the , "there is no evidence that unauthorised immigrants, green-card holders, or immigrants on temporary visas are voting in significant numbers, despite some claims that “millions” of noncitizens are voting in U.S. elections.
It added audits by election officials and many studies have shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare. According to the , found in 2022 that there were 11 million people living illegally in the US - a country of 340 million people.
The has contacted X/Twitter for comment.
