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Elon Musk eagerly protests against immigration for years. But it turns out that when he got his start as an entrepreneur in the United States, the South African-born billionaire was living and working there illegally, The Washington Post reportshis associates even fearing being expelled from the country.

While his brother Kimbal admitted that they were both working illegallythis is contrary to what Musk has claimed about his legal status in the past – and is blatantly hypocritical from someone who promotes anti-immigration rhetoric. and conspiracy theories as he supports the Republican candidate Donald Trump for president.

Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California, in 1995 to attend a graduate program at Stanford University. But he didn’t enroll in any courses, instead working on his startup that would become Zip2, which sold for $300 million in 1999. It’s safe to say that Musk would not be the wealthy tycoon he is today today without this golden ticket.

Yet while Musk was running his first business, he was staying in the United States illegally, according to legal experts interviewed. WaPo. Since he never attended school, he was not allowed to stay in the country – let alone work there.

“If you’re doing something that helps facilitate revenue generation, like design code or trying to make sales to facilitate revenue generation, then you’re in trouble,” said Leon Fresco, a former trial lawyer. in immigration matters at the Department of Justice. WaPo.

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Musk’s questionable legal status was a major concern for investors who backed Zip2, which aimed to become a public company or merge with an existing company. A financing agreement from a venture capital firm that invested in the company indicated that Musk and his brother Kimbal had 45 days to obtain legal employment status, WaPo find.

“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a business in the United States,” said Derek Proudian, then a Zip2 board member. and later became CEO. WaPo. “We don’t want our founder to be deported.”

According to former associates and shareholders, Musk said he was in the country on a student visa, which does not allow him to work. Since he never enrolled at Stanford, he couldn’t stay in the United States on that visa either.

Although Musk deny it today and claims to have a “student work visa,” he appeared to admit to his questionable immigration status in a 2005 email to Tesla co-founders, explaining his decision to apply to Stanford.

“Actually, I wasn’t really interested in the degree, but I didn’t have money for a lab or the legal right to stay in the country, so it seemed like a good way to solve both problems,” he said. Musk wrote in the email. , revealed in a California defamation lawsuit, according to WaPo.

This in itself is not scandalous: working or staying in the country outside the confines of a student visa is a common and often necessary way for international students to temporarily support themselves. But it is remarkably double-minded of Musk to vilify immigrants and demand tougher border policies, when he has benefited from a softer immigration system.

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