Immigrants Welcome

While Trump killed a visa program for startup founders, a dozen countries have widened their doors

- Olivia Carville

A master’s degree from Yale and angel investments in his start up weren’t enough to protect Mezyad AlMasoud from President Trump. A little more than a year ago, Trump moved to kill a nascent visa program meant specifically for company founders with capital in hand, such as AlMasoud. The Kuwaiti’s immigration lawyer called his Wall Street office to tell him that without the start up visa, which could have been granted under a plan known as the International Entrepreneur Rule, he had two weeks to leave the U.S. That afternoon, AlMasoud spent hours sitting by the East River, looking out at the Brooklyn Bridge. The thought running through his mind: How do I tell my 5-year-old daughter I failed?