Donald Trump has once again “shaken the box” – as cartoonist-turned-podcaster Scott Adams would put it. His announcement of $5-million “gold cards” reframes the immigration debate by assigning a value to our greatest asset, the privilege of U.S. citizenship and access to our limitless opportunities.

But to realize his plan’s full, breathtaking potential – to resolve in one fell swoop, our two most intractable challenges, illegal immigration and our $37-trillion national debt – the president should consider two “brand extensions:” going “silver” and “bronze.”

The gold card concept has two “bugs”: optics and volume. Offering super-immigration rights only to the ultra-rich or through large corporations is already under attack. It’s contrary to MAGA’s image as a middle-class movement and gives credibility to progressives’ constant harangue that President Trump is interested only in serving the multimillionaire/billionaire cohort.

Moreover, the math falls short on two fronts.

The first: a limited pool of eligible and interested applicants. As of 2020, fewer than 3 million people in the entire world boasted net worths north of $5 million, and most of those are either already in the U.S., in China, a somewhat dubious source of immigrants, or living comfortably in the developed world. And not many more individuals would generate sufficient revenues to justify a corporate investment of $5 million. 

Second, even with a larger pool, the government’s revenue stream from gold cards won’t put the kind of dent into the debt the president claims: “If we sell a million, that’s $5 trillion.” Hitting that target would require an enormous share of the world’s wealthiest to come here, and even then cover only a fraction of the debt.

But just like moving from the upscale to the middle and ultimately to the mass market can exponentially increase scale in a business, introducing tiered “brand extensions” of the gold card would not only dramatically increase its revenue potential to the point of retiring the nation’s debt but also make the initiative more equitable, attract a larger pool of talent and convert the strain on resources from illegal immigration into an ongoing revenue stream.

The two proposed additional tiers, which together could be branded the pay-to-stay plan:

Silver cards priced at $1 million payable over 30 to 50 years, financed with citizenship mortgages. The 10-plus million applicants who lose the green card lottery each year could obtain the cards and start on a path to citizenship in exchange for mortgages payable over 30 to 50 years, financed with low-interest bank loans.

Bronze cards attainable for a fee of $30 a day (potentially paid by up to five U.S. citizen or corporate sponsors at $5 per day plus $5 from the immigrant) would enable illegal immigrants and legal guest workers to stay in or legally enter the U.S. and work without gaining permanent residency, although recipients would be free to enter the green card lottery. The cards, and permission to work, would remain valid as long as the fees continue to be paid or a holder “wins” the green card lottery.

And those “brand extensions” deliver appreciable benefits:

• Transforming the cost sink (and social disruption) of illegal immigration – estimated at $150 billion annually for the federal government alone – into a revenue center generating sufficient funds to pay off the entire national debt over 11 years.
• Shifting the profile of immigrants from criminals, terrorists and gang members plus non-working asylum seekers to, for the bronze card, immigrants with good intentions who will volunteer to show up and be closely vetted and, for silver cards, the best and brightest the world has to offer, willing to invest in themselves – with the responsibility to vet them. 
• Funding increased border security and deportation efforts for immigrants here illegally and not willing or able to pay for the bronze cards or find employer or sponsors. Identifying criminals will also be easier because they are very unlikely to show up for the extensive vetting that those with appropriate, pro-American intentions will find quite reasonable.
• Allow U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to focus on re-securing the border, thereby reducing fentanyl and human trafficking and protecting our national security and re-instill respect for the rule of law.
• And, by the way, addressing labor shortages that are not just looming nationwide but actually here with the flow of illegals already slowing. While it might seem a bit stereotypical to mention, I’ve received firsthand reports of strawberry fields being plowed under here in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California, the Salad Bowl to the World, and other industries could be affected as well. Fixing this quickly will help forestall any inflation due workforce disruption. 

Besides solving the optics and volume problems with the gold cards – and tackling both our indebtedness and border security issues – there’s one additional bonus from adding the two tiers. Their greater reach and broader potential to create opportunity for prospective workers at all income levels might well attract rare bipartisan support from Democrats and progressives who reflexively dismiss even broadly popular, common-sense proposals from Trump.

An expanded, multi-brand, multi-tiered initiative that could tackle our two biggest national challenges – and promote unity at a time of untold division? That would be striking pure political gold. 

So Mr. President: go for the silver – and bronze!

Lee Lorenzen is a history-making entrepreneur whose more than 32 startups and dozens of innovations include the multi-vendor shopping cart that launched Amazon’s expansion from online bookseller to $2.5 trillion “Everything Store.”