Elon Musk shares Riley Gaines’ college swimming immigrant romance story with tragic vaccine mandate twist

The Vice President Kamala Harris open border looked like an easy gateway to international love, but the Biden COVID vaccine mandates put up a wall.

Former NCAA swimmer and conservative activist Riley Gaines shared the story of her marriage with fellow former University of Kentucky swimmer Louis Barker, who is originally from England, in a recent TikTok.

Barker and Gaines were both swimmers while in college. Gaines joined the University of Kentucky’s swim team and made the All-SEC freshman Team in 2019. She was also on the All-SEC Second Team in 2019 and 2020. Barker participated in the British Olympic Trials qualifier in 2016. Then in 2018, Barker participated in the 2018 Commonwealth Games Trials qualifier.

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The two dated for two years, between 2019 and 2021. In December 2021, Barker proposed to Gaines, which she announced on social media. They were married in May 2022 in Nashville, Tennessee. 

Now, Gaines, who has spoken out against illegal immigration and Vice President Harris for her poor handling of the border crisis, shared that her and her husband have been dealing with immigration issues themselves in recent years. Gaines says Barker, despite coming into the country legally, has not been able to attain citizenship or even a green card yet, despite the fact that the couple has been married for two years. 

“Maybe you think you think he’s well on his way to the U.S. citizen, and you would be wrong. After two and a half years of marriage, he still doesn’t have his green card,” Gaines said.

Gaines says the couple received a letter in the mail. The reason Barker has not been granted citizenship is that he does not have the COVID-19 vaccine. 

“Think about how hard our government has made it for people migrating into this country legally in comparison to those who break the law. Because if you just walk across the southern border, you’re given housing, a driver’s license, money.”

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Elon Musk reposed Gaines’ TikTok video on X with a message advocating for legal immigration reform. Musk himself is also a legal immigrant from South Africa who has also spoken in favor of immigration reform in the U.S. Musk has also denied a Washington Post report that alleges the tech billionaire began his career working in the U.S. illegally. 

“Legal immigration to America is ridiculously slow and difficult, even for super talented people. Needs to be fixed,” Musk wrote. 

Musk moved to Canada at 18 and got citizenship there via his mother and, a few years later, studied at the University of Pennsylvania. 

U.S. immigration law requires immigrant visa applicants to obtain certain vaccinations prior to the issuance of an immigrant visa. The COVID-19 vaccine was added to that list under the Biden-Harris administration.

Panel physicians who conduct medical examinations of immigrant visa applicants are required to verify that immigrant visa applicants have met the vaccination requirements, or that it is medically inappropriate for the visa applicant to receive one or more of the listed vaccinations. 

However, none of this applies to people who sneak into the country illegally. 

Gaines previously spoke out against illegal immigration in a social media spat with Mark Cuban. 

After Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released data to lawmakers in September revealing that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants with sex offenses and homicide convictions have crossed the border into the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, including 13,099 convicted of homicide and 15,811 of sexual assault, Gaines took aim at Cuban for suggesting Harris did a “good job” handling the border. 

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“We might have different standards for what qualifies as a ‘good job,’ but I don’t think the illegal entrance of 15,000+ rapists, 13,000+ murderers, and 320,000 missing children fits the bill,” Gaines on X in response to Cuban. 

Gaines’ reference to the 320,000 missing children was from another report from the Department of Homeland Security released Aug. 21 that revealed the Biden-Harris administration had lost track of that number of migrant children who crossed the border without parents. 

Meanwhile, ICE Boston announced on Wednesday the arrests of two illegal immigrants who have been charged with forcibly raping children in Massachusetts, as well as a third individual who was convicted of raping a child in Brazil, and was hiding in the U.S. after being caught and released at the U.S. border in 2022.

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