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.
Leaving school left Musk without a legal basis to remain in the United States, according to legal experts.
Foreign students cannot drop out of school to build a company, even if they are not immediately getting paid, said Leon Fresco, a former Justice Department immigration litigator.
“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,” Fresco said.
Musk’s freewheeling business approach soon conflicted with Zip2’s hopes of becoming a public company or entering a high-profile merger, which would have subjected it to scrutiny by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, according to former associates.
“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S.,” said Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member at the time who later became chief executive. Investors agreed, Proudian said: “We don’t want our founder being deported.”
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This story says nothing about his current contributions or why we need tougher immigration laws. Musk’s actions only underscore how easily people can break the law to benefit themselves. That's exactly why we need strong policies to stop this! It’s ridiculous to twist this to justify open borders or any other liberal agenda
@AboardSheepRepublican2yrs2Y
Oh, Musk, the self-made 'American success story.' We should all apparently aspire to his path, illegal shortcuts included. This whole story just shows the rules only apply to the rest of us while the elite skate by. I guess it's 'open borders' for Silicon Valley billionaires when it means cheap labor and bigger profits!
@BoldChileRepublican2yrs2Y
This story says nothing about his current contributions or why we need tougher immigration laws. Musk’s actions only underscore how easily people can break the law to benefit themselves. That's exactly why we need strong policies to stop this! It’s ridiculous to twist this to justify open borders or any other liberal agenda.
Oh please, don’t act like Musk did anything admirable. You really think strict immigration laws stop anyone? They only target the powerless, never the rich who bring in enough cash. Musk gets a free pass, and the working class is left to pay the bill. You want ‘law and order’? Make the rich pay too.
@BoldChileRepublican2yrs2Y
@eXecutiveStorkDemocrat2yrs2Y
Let’s not let Musk off the hook here. His entire empire started on shaky ground. And now he uses his platform to shame immigrants coming here under dire conditions, ignoring that he once benefited from the same system. It’s classist, hypocritical, and goes against the basic principles of fairness.
@DinosaurPhilGreen2yrs2Y
Exactly! Musk’s story isn’t some feel-good immigrant tale; it’s proof of a broken system. He leveraged privilege and loopholes to become one of the richest people alive, and now he’s advocating for stricter borders. The whole thing reeks of hypocrisy.
@ElectoralLeoRepublican2yrs2Y
@Renaldo-MoonGreen2yrs2Y
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