Elon Musk, a powerful critic of illegal immigrants and a staunch supporter of Donald Trump who has for years portrayed migrants as invaders and criminals, worked “illegally” in the United States during the start of his career, reported The Washington Post.
According to the report, Musk, whose origin is from South Africa, dropped out of Stanford University in 1995 to work on his debut company, Zip2 for four years before it sold for around 300 million dollars. During this time, he was working without correct authorization.
Two of Musk’s former colleagues also said that Musk received his US work authorisation around 1997, the report said.
Musk, being a foreign student in US, could not have dropped out of school to build a company as per the rules.
Overstaying a student visa is common in most cases, however, it still remains illegal, the Post said.
Despite this, Musk has always maintained that his time from turning into an entrepreneur from a student is a “legal grey area”.
The report also cited a 2020 podcast in which Musk had said that he was legally in US but he was meant to be doing student work. “I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever,” he said.
Several of the Tesla and SpaceX boss’ recent posts on social media platforms have been on immigration and voter fraud, accusing White House nominee and Vice-President Kamala Harris of “importing voters” through illegal immigrants. Last week, he also compared the US-Mexico border – where several Mexican immigrants enter America – to a “zombie apocalypse”.