By Sarah D. Wire

Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON, D.C — When Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., met with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office this week, he took the opportunity to pitch the president on a plan to pay for Trump’s proposed border wall: Charge 50,000 wealthy foreigners a year $1 million each to become citizens.

“We have 50,000 people come into the country every year chosen by a lottery, which is ridiculous. If we’re going to have people come in, OK, let’s choose the people coming in,” the Republican said Wednesday.

The 50,000 visas Rohrabacher referred to are granted each year largely to people from Eastern Europe and Africa. To qualify, a person must have a high school diploma and be from a country few people emigrate from.

Unlike the hundreds of thousands of other visas the U.S. grants each year, which are based on specific factors like working in a high-demand field or having family in the country, the lottery is the only visa program based on a willingness to drop everything and move to the U.S.

Under Rohrabacher’s plan, the visa lottery would end and wealthy visa applicants would pay to become citizens within two years of their application.

Rohrabacher said Trump was so interested in the idea brought up during their Tuesday meeting that he called in White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and senior strategist Steve Bannon to join the 45-minute conversation, which lasted three times longer than scheduled.

Rohrabacher said he and Trump also touched on a variety of foreign and domestic policies during their meeting, but he wouldn’t be more specific.

Rohrabacher has been a vocal defender of the new president and his foreign policy proposals, including improving relations with Russia. Rohrabacher’s pro-Russia stance has long put him at odds with the majority of the Republican Party, but has gained Rohrabacher new standing with Trump.

Rohrabacher said Trump’s invitation to the White House came just after he defended the president on Fox News on Saturday. He didn’t believe the invitation was real because it was April Fools’ Day.

“It was a lively discussion on Fox News and I was my normal aggressive self and when I got off the interview … my phone rang and it was the White House operator saying the president’s on the line for you,” Rohrabacher said. “It turned out this wasn’t a prank from one of my friends.”

National Democrats have announced plans to target Rohrabacher in 2018, and he has drawn two opponents already. While the congressman was elected to a 15th term with 58.32 percent of the vote, the district narrowly chose Hillary Clinton for president.

“Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has existed on the fringe of American politics for decades but now has the ear of the president and the ability to push his dangerous views inside the Trump administration,” Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee spokesperson Tyler Law said in a statement.