Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk briefly worked illegally in the US after abandoning a graduate studies program in California, according to a Washington Post report that contrasted the episode with the South African multibillionaire’s anti-immigration views.
Musk, who has in recent weeks supported Donald Trump’s campaign for a second presidency while promoting the Republican White House nominee’s opposition to “open borders” on his X social media site, has previously maintained that his transition from student to entrepreneur was a “legal grey area.”.
However, the Washington Post reported Saturday that the world’s wealthiest individual was almost certainly working in the US without correct authorisation for a period in 1995 after he dropped out of Stanford University to work on his debut company, Zip2, which sold for about $300 million four years later.
Legal experts disclaim that international students cannot drop out of school to start a business even if they are not paid. The Post also stated that prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001, student visa regulations were more loose.
“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,” Leon Fresco, a former US justice department immigration litigator, told the outlet.
But the Post also acknowledged: “While overstaying a student visa is somewhat common and officials have at times turned a blind eye to it, it remains illegal.”
Musk has previously said, “I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever.”
Musk employs 121,000 workers at Tesla, roughly 13,000 at SpaceX, and nearly 3,000 at X.
The investigation into his immigration status after dropping out of Stanford comes after Trump expressed his desire for Musk to play a high-profile role focused on government efficiency in a second Trump administration if voters return him to office over Kamala Harris in the November 5 election.
Musk, in response, has accused the vice president and her fellow Democrats of “importing voters” through illegal and temporary protected status immigration.
During a Trump campaign appearance, he compared the US-Mexico border to a “zombie apocalypse”—even a as he had also previously described himself as “extremely pro-immigrant, being one myself.”
