Washington: According to a report by the Washington Post, South African-born billionaire Elon Musk worked illegally in the United States for a brief period during the 1990s while establishing his startup. The article states that Musk arrived in Palo Alto, California, in 1995 with plans to attend Stanford University, but he never enrolled in his graduate program. Instead, he focused on developing his software company, Zip2, which was sold in 1999 for approximately $300 million.
Two immigration law experts quoted in the report explained that Musk would have needed to maintain full-time student status to be eligible for valid work authorization as an international student. Musk did not respond to multiple requests for comment sent to his companies—SpaceX, Tesla, X (formerly Twitter), and The Boring Company—nor did his lawyer, Alex Spiro.
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In a 2020 podcast referenced by the Post, Musk remarked, “I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever.” The report also includes insights from two former colleagues who indicated that Musk obtained his U.S. work authorization around 1997.
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Notably, Musk has publicly supported Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming U.S. election on November 5. Trump has long framed migrants as threats and has implemented strict measures to reduce both legal and illegal immigration during his presidency from 2017 to 2021. He has pledged the most extensive deportation effort in U.S. history if he wins reelection.
