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President Donald Trump speaks as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listens alongside a poster of the Trump Gold Card in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, Sept. 19, 2025, in Washington (AP Photo/Alex Brandon).
The Trump administration has been accused of breaking the law by withholding all information related to the president’s $1 million “Gold Card Visa Program” and its effects on the public, as detailed in a recent federal lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. against multiple government agencies.
The lawsuit, brought forth by the Democracy Defenders Fund along with the Florida-based law firm Colombo & Hurd, targets the State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Homeland Security. The plaintiffs argue that these agencies have failed to release documents of “national significance” that they are entitled to under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).
The Democracy Defenders Fund, co-founded by Norm Eisen, a former ethics advisor during the Obama administration, insists that the public has a right to understand how the Gold Card program, initiated by President Donald Trump via executive order in September, was developed and implemented by these agencies.
In addition to challenging the program itself as a “pay-to-play” scheme that favors wealthy immigrants over professionals like scientists and academics, this nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is now seeking documents to uncover more details. According to Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the program has already facilitated the sale of over $1 billion worth of gold cards.
The complaint notes that on February 11, 2026, the Democracy Defenders Fund submitted a FOIA request to the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The request sought information on the Gold Card Visa Program’s development and execution to inform the public about government actions, but the defendants have yet to provide any responsive information or invoke any statutory exemptions to justify their noncompliance.
Then the filing turned to the blog post that Lutnick’s agency put up in December, complete with a button to apply for a gold card.
“Our immigration system should put Americans first. That’s exactly why the Trump Gold Card is a major win for our country,” Lutnick declared at the time.
The plaintiffs countered that the Trump administration should be forced to disclose internal documents about the program precisely because the public has been left to rely on only Trump and Lutnick’s assurances.
“Behind closed doors, this administration appears to be trying to turn our immigration system into a bazaar with the privilege of U.S. residency available to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, they are cruelly cracking down on others who are drawn to our shores,” Eisen said in a statement. “The American people deserve to know how this pay-to-play scheme came to be, how the Gold Card applications are processed and how the program adversely impacts qualified applicants whose work in the U.S. would benefit all of us.”
Free Information Group is a public interest law firm also involved in the litigation. Co-founder Kevin Bell stated that “[i]mmigrant visas are not million-dollar Mar-a-Lago memberships.”
“For months President Trump and Secretary Lutnick shifted their story about which foreign interests would benefit and who would suffer the cost. This litigation will reveal the true story. People may lie, but records don’t,” Bell said.