The Boston Globe reports:
A controversial federal program that gives immigration visas to investors in job-creating projects will probably be killed unless it’s overhauled by Congress, US Senator Patrick Leahy said Friday.
The Vermont Democrat issued the warning a day after the developers of the Jay Peak ski resort in his home state were accused by federal regulators of misusing millions of dollars they raised through the EB-5 visa system. Leahy, a longtime supporter of the program, has cosponsored legislation aimed at curbing abuses.
“If these reforms don’t go through, we will not have an EB-5 program,” Leahy said at a news conference. “I think it could be a very good program, to bring jobs in underserved areas, provided the rules are followed. Put the changes in the EB-5 program or kill it.”
There's more:
Congress created the immigrant investor program in 1990, but it received renewed interest after the 2008 financial crisis when businesses struggled to get loans. Under the visa program, foreigners who invest at least $500,000 in US projects that create jobs are provided green cards and a path to citizenship. The government sets aside 10,000 visas a year for these investors and their families.
Critics have argued that it provides wealthy foreigners a quick lane through the US immigration process, is dominated by development projects in big cities, and that it has been vulnerable to fraud because of the lack of oversight.
The SEC has brought civil fraud cases against the developers of projects in California, Washington, and Illinois in the past three years.
Why not go back to the pre-1965 Immigration law?
