Today the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the EB-5 Visa Program. FAIR has continually called for an end to this program which has been riddled with mismanagement and fraud.
The EB-5 Visa Program was created in 1990 for foreigners to get visas for themselves and their families by investing in a U.S. business that creates or preserves 10 full-time jobs. When initial participation was low, Congress created a pilot program (Regional Center Program) that allowed foreign investors to get a visa with a smaller investment provided it went to rural and depressed areas. As expected, the Regional Center Program was not well defined and it morphed into something completely different from its original intentions raising not only the fraud concerns but also national security ones.
To learn more about the flaws in the EB-5 Regional Center Program, read FAIR’s issue brief.
The EB-5 Regional Center Program is set to expire on September 30, 2016, unless Congress reauthorizes it. Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said that witnesses at today’s hearing will testify regarding the numerous problems facing the EB-5 program. FAIR encourages its members to watch this hearing to get a more thorough understanding of the program’s flaws and why this program is beyond reform.