Elon Musk, a staunch opponent of open borders, briefly worked illegally in the US in 1995 after leaving Stanford. He overstayed his student visa to launch Zip2, operating without proper authorization for several years before obtaining work authorization around 1997.
Billionaire Elon Musk, who is touted as an “enemy of open borders,” briefly worked in the United States illegally in 1995. According to a bombshell report from The Washington Post, Musk was considered illegal in the country after he abandoned a graduate studies program in California. The report claims that Musk, a South African by birth, left Stanford University in 1995 to focus on his first business, Zip2, for four years before it sold for about $300 million. He was operating during this period without the proper authorization. According to the report, Musk obtained his US work authorization around 1997, according to two of his former coworkers.
Musk could not have left school to start a business since he was a foreign student in the United States. According to the Post, overstaying a student visa is still prohibited even if it is frequent in most situations. Musk has consistently insisted that there is a "legal grey area" around his transition from student to entrepreneur.
The story also referenced a 2020 podcast in which Musk said that although he was lawfully in the United States, he was supposed to be working as a student. "I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever," he stated.
In a number of recent social media postings, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla has discussed immigration and voting fraud, accusing Vice President and White House candidate Kamala Harris of "importing voters" through illegal immigrants. He also likened the US-Mexico border, which is where many Mexican immigrants enter the United States, to a "zombie apocalypse" last week.