Latest news with #Elez
Boston Globe
16-04-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Musk's team is building a system to sell ‘Gold Card' immigrant visas
In late February, Trump announced his idea for a gold card to give 'very high-level people' a 'route to citizenship.' Advertisement The president and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick provided few details at the time about who would qualify for the program but noted that it would replace the EB-5 visa, which grants permanent residence to foreign nationals willing to invest in U.S. businesses. That program provided green cards to individuals who invested either $800,000 or $1.05 million, creating at least 10 jobs for American workers. It raised about $4 billion for the federal government last year. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The gold card project is being led from the DOGE side by Marko Elez and Edward Coristine, who have been working on it since at least last month. Elez and Coristine have met with officials at various agencies that oversee facets of the visa and immigrant vetting process to understand which existing processes can be incorporated into their new system. Advertisement The State Department referred requests for comment to the White House. The White House and Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests for comment. Lutnick said on a podcast last month that he had sold 1,000 of the visas 'yesterday.' But a person close to the project said no money had been exchanged yet. 'So if you have a gold card -- which used to be a green card -- you're a permanent resident of America,' the commerce secretary said, suggesting that most holders would not go on to become U.S. citizens. He added, 'They pay $5 million, and they have the right to be an American and the right to be in America as long as they're good people and they're vetted and they can't break the law.' Musk is building the software 'right now' and the program will be unveiled in two weeks, Lutnick added. Earlier this month, Trump showed a laminated card, featuring his face, the Statute of Liberty and a bald eagle, to reporters aboard Air Force One and said it would be out in 'less than two weeks.' On Thursday, Lutnick updated the timeline, saying the gold card would be ready 'within a week and a half.' The engineers are still assessing how to create a gold card system that would bypass the normal visa application process, which varies but can take years. They have focused on how to expedite the typical immigrant vetting process, which involves interviews and background checks, and obtain residency approval for high-net-worth applicants within two weeks of applying. Elez faced a storm of controversy earlier this year after The Wall Street Journal linked him to a pseudonymous account on social platform X with racist posts and calls for immigration policy based on eugenics. Advertisement Elez resigned in February after the report, prompting Trump and Vice President JD Vance to call for his rehiring. Since then, Elez has worked for five government agencies, including the Labor Department and Department of Health and Human Services, according to court filings, as well as the Social Security Administration. Before joining Musk's team, Coristine, a 19-year-old who publicly goes by 'Big Balls,' was fired in June 2022 from an internship at Path, an Arizona-based data security company, after 'an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure,' the company said in a statement. Joe Gebbia, a billionaire co-founder of Airbnb, has also been involved with the project, according to people close to the conversations. He joined Musk's team in February, initially to help digitize the federal worker retirement process. Elez, Coristine and Gebbia did not respond to requests for comment. This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
DOGE staffer who resigned over past social media posts reinstated with higher access: Filing
A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who resigned over racist posts that resurfaced on social media last month was reinstated to oversee the slashing of waste, fraud and abuse in March under the agency led by Elon Musk, according to court filings. Marko Elez, 25, allegedly relinquished access to sensitive systems being reviewed by DOGE in early February as divulged by the White House. However, he was listed as a staffer in a lawsuit that required the Trump administration to reveal the identity of the agency's hired workers. Legal documents categorize Elez as a Department of Labor employee detailed to the United States DOGE Service and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since March 5. Filings say he had access to the federal directory of new hires, general ledger accounting system and contract writing system at HHS. 'Mr. Elez was granted read-only access to the above-listed systems in furtherance of the DOGE EOs [executive order] directive to identify waste, fraud, and abuse and to modernize government technology and software to increase efficiency and productivity,' according to court documents. 'Mr. Elez's access to the above referenced CMS systems has been disabled. Mr. Elez has not modified, copied and shared with any unauthorized users, or removed any records from any of the systems he has actually accessed,' it reads. 'There are currently no pending requests to grant Mr. Elez access to other sensitive systems at HHS, nor has Mr. Elez been denied access to any systems at HHS.' The documents confirm that Musk's intent to rehire Elez as a staffer was affirmed. 'He will be brought back,' the tech giant wrote on X amid emerging reports of the 25 year old urging the public to 'Normalize Indian hate' in a deleted post. Vice President Vance, whose wife is Indian, also supported Elez's return. 'Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life,' the vice president said on social platform X, referring to the staffer Marko Elez. 'We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back.' 'If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,' he added. When Elez resigned from DOGE in February, the Treasury Department issued a statement saying that Elez was given 'read-only' access to the highly sensitive payment systems, despite numerous reports indicating that he had the ability to rewrite the payment system base code. The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's requests for comment on Elez's reinstatement at DOGE. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
01-04-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
DOGE staffer who resigned over past social media posts reinstated with higher access: Filing
A Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) staffer who resigned over racist posts that resurfaced on social media last month was reinstated to oversee the slashing of waste, fraud and abuse in March under the agency led by Elon Musk, according to court filings. Marko Elez, 25, allegedly relinquished access to sensitive systems being reviewed by DOGE in early February as divulged by the White House. However, he was listed as a staffer in a lawsuit that required the Trump administration to reveal the identity of the agency's hired workers. Legal documents categorize Elez as a Department of Labor employee detailed to the United States DOGE Service and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) since March 5. Filings say he had access to the federal directory of new hires, general ledger accounting system and contract writing system at HHS. 'Mr. Elez was granted read-only access to the above-listed systems in furtherance of the DOGE EOs [executive order] directive to identify waste, fraud, and abuse and to modernize government technology and software to increase efficiency and productivity,' according to court documents. 'Mr. Elez's access to the above referenced CMS systems has been disabled. Mr. Elez has not modified, copied and shared with any unauthorized users, or removed any records from any of the systems he has actually accessed,' it reads. 'There are currently no pending requests to grant Mr. Elez access to other sensitive systems at HHS, nor has Mr. Elez been denied access to any systems at HHS.' The documents confirm that Musk's intent to rehire Elez as a staffer was affirmed. 'He will be brought back,' the tech giant wrote on X amid emerging reports of the 25 year old urging the public to 'Normalize Indian hate' in a deleted post. Vice President Vance, whose wife is Indian, also supported Elez's return. 'Here's my view: I obviously disagree with some of Elez's posts, but I don't think stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life,' the vice president said on social platform X, referring to the staffer Marko Elez. 'We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever. So I say bring him back.' 'If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that,' he added. When Elez resigned from DOGE in February, the Treasury Department issued a statement saying that Elez was given 'read-only' access to the highly sensitive payment systems, despite numerous reports indicating that he had the ability to rewrite the payment system base code. The White House did not immediately respond to The Hill's requests for comment on Elez's reinstatement at DOGE.
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A 25-year-old DOGE staffer who resigned over racist posts is back in government with new access to sensitive systems
A DOGE staffer, who was forced to resign after being linked to racist social media posts, is back in government with fresh access to sensitive systems. Marko Elez has been assigned to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since March 5, per court filings. A 25-year-old DOGE staffer who resigned after being linked to a social media account that shared racist posts is officially back on the government's payroll. According to court filings, Marko Elez now has access to sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor. Elez resigned from his role at DOGE in early February after a report from the Wall Street Journal linked him to a now-deleted account that shared posts including one claiming he was "racist before it was cool." The account also reportedly shared a post calling to normalize 'Indian hate,' and another that suggested Gaza and Israel be 'wiped off the face of the Earth." At the time, the White House confirmed to the Journal that Elez had resigned from his government role. However, the recent court filings reveal Elez is still working as a Labor Department aide in connection with DOGE. The court documents state Elez had been detailed to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services since March 5 and is also assigned to the United States Digital Service (USDS). Elez has access to several sensitive systems within the Department of Health and Human Services including the National Directory of New Hires and the Healthcare Integrated General Ledger Accounting System (HIGLAS), which is primarily used to manage and track payments related to Medicare and Medicaid programs. At the Department of Labor, Elez had access to four more sensitive systems: USAccess, DOL Homeland Security Presidential Directive 12, DOL Directory Resource Administrator (DRA), and Unemployment Insurance Data and Related Records. The court filing notes he is the only DOL employee who has an employment relationship with DOGE and has been granted permission to access sensitive systems at the agency. Elez has also installed two programs onto DOL systems: a code editor called Visual Studio Code and Python, a programming language, according to court filings. The Department of Labor said it was aware Elez was simultaneously assigned to or employed by another four agencies, not including USDS. Representatives for DOGE, the Department of Labor and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune. The 25-year-old was working in the United States Department of the Treasury when the Wall Street Journal linked him to the racist account. After the news broke, Elon Musk, JD Vance, and U.S. President Donald Trump advocated for Elez's reinstatement. Musk polled X users on whether he should bring back the DOGE staffer after making 'inappropriate statements" while Vance said in a post on X he didn't think "stupid social media activity should ruin a kid's life." 'We shouldn't reward journalists who try to destroy people. Ever,' Vance said. 'So I say bring him back. If he's a bad dude or a terrible member of the team, fire him for that.' Trump later said he was 'with the vice president' when questioned about Elez and Vance's response during a news conference. Elez's brief stint at the Treasury also made headlines after it was revealed he was "mistakenly" given edit access over the department's payment systems. In an affidavit, a Treasury official stated that Elez was 'mistakenly' given 'read/write permissions instead of read-only' in an error that was 'promptly corrected.' The edit permissions were granted during Elez's supervised, walk-through session, and an initial investigation found that 'no unauthorized actions had taken place,' the official said. In a separate court filing, another federal official said that Elez violated Treasury policies by emailing a spreadsheet containing personal information to two other members of the Trump administration. The official said he sent the sensitive information unencrypted and without prior approval, violating the Bureau of the Fiscal Service's policies on handling sensitive information. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
DOGE's Marko Elez is back on U.S. payroll
A member of Elon Musk's DOGE team — fired from the Treasury Department after the discovery of racist social media posts — has been working for weeks on sensitive systems at the Department of Health and Human Services, new government disclosures revealed Saturday. Marko Elez, whom Musk vowed to rehire after Trump allies pushed back on his termination, rejoined the administration in February as a Labor Department employee before he was detailed on March 5 to HHS, the administration acknowledged earlier this week in answers to a court-ordered demand for information in connection with a pending lawsuit. In addition to HHS, Elez is detailed to the Department of Government Efficiency core staff at the White House, as well as at least four other government agencies, according to the documents filed Saturday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Elez, 25, now has access to systems that help enforce child support orders, Medicare and Medicaid payments, and HHS contracts, the court filings indicate. Spokespeople for the White House, the Labor Department and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment Saturday. The details about Elez were included in the most detailed description to date of DOGE's access to some of the federal government's most sensitive databases. They were disclosed after a federal judge required the administration to deliver details about DOGE's work as part of a lawsuit brought in February on behalf of several labor unions and nonprofit groups. The suit contends that federal agencies have given the Musk-led group unlawful access to sensitive private information. U.S. District Judge John Bates denied the unions' request for a restraining order blocking DOGE's access to such data, but the judge agreed to force the administration to reveal more details about DOGE operations. In a court filing Saturday, lawyers pressing the suit from the liberal watchdog group Democracy Forward and law firm Relman Colfax argued that the Trump administration's responses to the discovery requests authorized by Bates improperly excluded information about people publicly identified as DOGE staffers in news reports and interviews. Still, the details about the DOGE team — and its access to a wide range of sensitive databases — were some of the most expansive to date. Among the revelations: DOGE's Luke Farritor has access to 12 sensitive systems, including those that handle Medicare and Medicaid payments, contracts, acquisitions, National Institutes of Health grants and general HHS grants. One employee detailed to the General Services Administration, Kyle Schutt, has access to a database of 'Unaccompanied Alien Children.' Amy Gleason, identified by the White House as DOGE's 'acting administrator' despite questions about when and whether she is running the operation, has been working on efforts to modernize Medicare and Medicaid payment systems. The filing indicates that Gleason 'exercises authority over detailing and deploying DOGE Employees to other agencies.' 'Whether an agency chooses to onboard a [DOGE] employee, or accept a detail, is up to that agency,' the administration emphasized. During Elez's initial stint at Treasury, he violated the agency's information security policies by sending a spreadsheet containing names and payments information to officials at the General Services Administration, according to a court filing in another suit pending in New York.
