It's up to President-elect Donald Trump to address fraud and abuse in America's EB-5 visa program, which provides a citizenship path for foreigners who invest at least $500,000 to $1 million in job-creating projects.
As The Washington Times reports, the lame-duck Congress “renewed the EB-5 visa, without any reforms, for another four-and-a-half years as part of the year-end stopgap spending bill.”
As Washington swamps go, there's plenty to drain from the EB-5 bog. Critics say the program allows wealthy foreign investors to buy admission to the U.S. A former head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was blasted by an inspector general for “unprecedented” intervention that secured “EB-5 approvals in cases involving politically connected Democrats,” including former Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. And in Vermont, hundreds of millions of EB-5 investor dollars allegedly have been diverted “as part of a Ponzi scheme.”
Mr. Trump's team didn't respond when The Times sought comment. But fellow Republican and former New York Gov. George Pataki expects he'll keep EB-5, saying Trump's “strong stance (is) against illegal immigration. And EB-5 is a legal immigration program. He understands the need for capital, the need for investment.”
The EB-5 program can help Trump fulfill his campaign pledges about boosting U.S. jobs — if he and the new GOP-controlled Congress reform it so that it works as intended, free of insider favoritism.
http://triblive.com/opinion/editorials/11707711-74/program-trump-bog
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American citizenship should absolutely not be for sale, let alone only for the wealthy. And as far as "bringing more jobs" that is a joke as they are only required to create 10 jobs per development. Therefore people are becoming millionaires off this total scheme of selling visas to wealthy immigrants while immigrants who have no money have to go through all the procedures and years of waiting to get a visa. Certain Americans are making millions of dollars on this corrupt deal. I recently learned of this scheme and am appalled that it exists.