Letter: Congress should allow the EB-5 program to expire this month

Letter: Congress should allow the EB-5 program to expire this month

2015/09/30 7:34am

Recently, I have been made aware of the EB-5 Investment Program in the U.S., in which entrepreneurs, their spouses and their unmarried children are eligible to apply for green cards (permanent residence) if they make the necessary investments in a commercial enterprise in the U.S. and plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office published an Aug. 15 report titled "Immigrant Investor Program: Additional Actions Needed to Better Assess Fraud Risks and Report Economic Benefits.

That report states, "Unique fraud risks identified in the program included uncertainties in verifying that the funds invested were obtained lawfully and various investment-related schemes to defraud investors."

There is much more information in this report. The Post-Bulletin reported the EB-5 program is about to expire on Sept. 30 unless Congress takes action. Based on this report, I think this program should expire.