{"id":21376,"date":"2019-04-17T14:25:58","date_gmt":"2019-04-17T18:25:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=21376"},"modified":"2019-04-17T14:26:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-17T18:26:01","slug":"the-eb-5-investor-visa-program-deserves-to-die-now-immigrationreform-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2019\/04\/17\/the-eb-5-investor-visa-program-deserves-to-die-now-immigrationreform-com\/","title":{"rendered":"The EB-5 Investor Visa Program Deserves To Die Now"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
The intention behind the EB-5 investor visa program was noble. Spur economic growth in impoverished parts of the U.S. by allowing foreign nationals to obtain green cards in exchange for invest<\/a>i<\/a>ng at least $1,000,000<\/a> in a new commercial enterprise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The reality of the EB-5, however, is different as the\nprogram has been a bigger financial benefit to the noble class than those living\nin the targeted employment areas (TEAs) it was meant to uplift. And that\nreality has been known for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, the Government Accountability Office (GAO)\u00a0issued a report<\/a> noting that \u201cfraud risks in the EB-5 Program are constantly evolving, and they continually identify new fraud schemes.\u201d A year later, New York finance broker Howard Michaels characterized EB-5 as the \u201ccrack cocaine\u201d<\/a> of real estate financing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just last month, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote<\/a> the Trump administration urging them to finalize proposed rules of the EB-5 program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFor years, we have watched with growing alarm as the\nEB-5 program has strayed further and further away from what Congress envisioned,\u201d\nwrote the senators, who argued the new regulations would \u201cre-align\u201d the current\nprogram with Congress\u2019 original vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fraud and misappropriated funds for one project in Vermont was so bad, the state\u2019s EB-5 program was shut down<\/a>. The Obama administration tried to get reforms<\/a> through Congress. They failed despite widespread recognition of the systemic weaknesses in the program and the likelihood for abuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anyone has any doubts, simply consider how New York\nstate drew well outside the geographic and ethical lines to get approval for\nHudson Yards, a luxury real\nestate development in Manhattan that was partly financed through EB-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs a community bordered by\u00a0expensive neighborhoods\u00a0such as Chelsea and Hell’s Kitchen, Hudson Yards was too wealthy on its own to qualify for the EB-5 program. To solve the problem, the state included a few census tracts from Harlem as part of the overarching TEA,\u201d reported Business Insider<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n