Elon Musk, enemy of ‘open borders,’ launched his career working illegally

By Maria Sacchetti, Faiz Siddiqui and Nick Miroff October 26, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

Musk 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 X/Twitter, which Musk proclaimed would be a bastion of free speech. But, in other news articles, Musk has blocked negative articles about Trump, and banned those journalists accounts. I reported in another post that X/Twitter has become a Trump Propaganda Machine.

  • Elon Musk’s Early Career: Musk worked illegally in the U.S. while building Zip2, lacking the proper work authorization after dropping out of Stanford.
  • Immigration Status: Musk and his brother Kimbal faced immigration challenges, with investors pushing them to secure legal work status.
  • Contradictory Stance: Despite his past, Musk now supports strict immigration policies and has criticized undocumented immigrants.
  • Legal and Ethical Issues: Musk’s actions, including misleading U.S. federal agents, highlight potential legal violations during his early career.

“Their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S. We don’t want our founder being deported. We want to take care of this long before there’s anything that could screw up the company’s path to an initial public offering.” – Derek Proudian, a Zip2 board member, who later became CEO of the company.

Elon Musk was an illegal alien when he entered the United States on a student visa and never enrolled in a university, Stanford in the case, as he was required to do. Company officers and board members of Zip2 were worried that Musk’s visa status would stymie the company’s efforts to go public with an IPO.