--- title: "Elon Musk Hates Illegal Immigrants, But According to His Brother He Used to Be One" description: "Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has become a staunch opponent of illegal immigrants, despite his brother once calling him one." date: "2024-10-25" modified: "2024-10-25" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-hates-illegal-immigrants-brother" categories: - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "immigration" - "the digest" --- # Elon Musk Hates Illegal Immigrants, But According to His Brother He Used to Be One ![Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has become a staunch opponent of illegal immigrants, despite his brother once calling him one.]() *\Image: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images\* ## Double Standards Multi-hyphenate billionaire Elon Musk has become a staunch opponent of illegal immigrants, using his considerable following on X — the social network he owns, previously called Twitter — to spread outright [racist conspiracy theorists]() and plenty of other disinformation about the topic. But there's an uncomfortable truth that stands out, as [*CNN* reported last month](): as his own younger brother once claimed, Musk may have once been an illegal immigrant himself. During an April 2013 conference in California, Kimbal Musk recalled how his and his brother's startup scored a $3 million investment from venture capitalists. "When they did fund us, they realized that we were illegal immigrants," Kimbal Musk said at the time. His brother interjected, claiming that "it was a gray area" without elaborating. Last time we checked, that doesn't sound like a clearcut case of legal immigration. ## Anti-Immigrant Song Plenty of questions remain regarding Musk and his brother's visas when founding the companies. The pair moved to Palo Alto, California in 1995. As *CNN* points out, two separate biographies of Musk's life have claimed that investors helped the two obtain the correct visas, suggesting they were once raising funds without the appropriate legal paperwork. One possibility is that Musk launched Zip2, an early online mapping company, under a student visa, which generally comes with limitations regarding how much work can be done off campus. Musk became a full US citizen in 2002, but the steps leading to that point remain murky at best. He previously [called]() the process a "laborious Kafkaesque nightmare" and [claimed]() that it was "extremely difficult." You'd think that'd give him some empathy for immigrants now caught in the vagaries of the immigration process, but instead he's [thrown his full weight]() behind former president Donald Trump's reelection campaign, and his willingness to welcome others to the United States has seemingly withered. Last month, he [shared racist disinformation]() to back up Trump's preposterous claim that Haitian immigrants were "eating pets." He has also joined other conservative pundits in accusing the immigrants of being "cannibals" who therefore shouldn't be allowed to move to the US. In fact, as [*Bloomberg* reported]() earlier today, Musk has risen to become one of the biggest promoters of anti-immigrant conspiracies on X-formerly-Twitter. Many of these often racist utterances aren't accompanied by community notes, signaling that his lies are spreading on the platform largely unfettered. It's a sad state of affairs, indicative of a massive double standard. Despite Musk's own personal hardships with obtaining citizenship in the US, he's clearly now decided to slam the door behind him. **More on Musk:** *[Elon Musk Responds to Concerns That His Political Antics Are Tanking Tesla Sales]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()