When President Donald Trump created the Department of Government Efficiency, its mandate was to modernize “federal technology and software.”

It has done a lot more than that. But Wednesday, New York Times journalists Ryan Mac and Hamed Aleaziz reported that Elon Musk’s outfit is doing something entirely new: building a system to sell $5 million “special immigration visas.”

Musk, whose exact government job description remains unclear, has been working on building the software, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on a recent podcast. Musk and his team are trying to speed up the typical vetting process for immigrants so that rich applicants can obtain U.S. residency in a matter of weeks. They have been working with employees from the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to create the website and application process.

It’s a story that reveals how DOGE’s functional power has seemingly expanded, with the group going so far as to rework a corner of the nation’s immigration system. Ryan and Hamed noted that it also shows how the Musk outfit is not only trying to cut jobs and contracts but also generate revenue.

And it’s an example of how its staff members are building structures and systems that might outlast them.

Many DOGE Employees Considered ‘Special Government Employees’

Many of DOGE’s employees — and Musk — are “special government employees,” who are allowed to perform “important, but limited” services to the government for 130 days a year.

Eighty-six days into the Trump administration, the clock on those special government employees is ticking. Musk and Trump have both alluded to the idea that the tech billionaire’s time in government could soon wind down, though they are not expected to cut ties.

Musk and DOGE have made a lot of changes so far. Members of the department are building new systems like this one. They are leading an effort to consolidate government data more broadly, despite the objections of career staff members and national security experts.

They have pushed to cut tens of thousands of jobs and spur early retirements, which federal workers across the government say has sapped agencies of critical institutional knowledge. And they have kneecapped agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The State Department, which is trying to absorb the remains of that aid agency, offers an interesting window into the next phase of DOGE.

A DOGE staff member, Jeremy Lewin, 28, now has a top role in foreign assistance, the Times’ Edward Wong reported this week, which will give Lewin the power to oversee what’s left of USAID. The Associated Press observed Tuesday that his job amounts to one of the highest-ranking formal government positions for a member of Musk’s team.

The next round of changes the Trump administration envisions for the State Department, though, could be much harder. Edward and Karoun Demirjian obtained a copy of an internal memo outlining a plan that would cut the department’s funding almost in half. It proposes major cuts to humanitarian assistance and global health programs, eliminating almost all funding for international organizations like the United Nations and NATO, and much more.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been clear that he, not Musk or DOGE, is the one in charge of cuts to the State Department. But, as Edward and Karoun point out, he also needs the agreement of Congress to make them — and it’s not clear how seriously such cuts will be taken there.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Jess Bidgood/Tom Brenner
c. 2025 The New York Times Company