Fox News’s Tucker Carlson says the “corrupt” EB-5 visa program is selling American citizenship to rich Chinese nationals.
In a segment this week, Carlson called out the EB-5 visa program, whereby wealthy foreign nationals can claim they will invest in the United States at least $900,000 — the previous rate was $500,000 — securing green cards for themselves and their family members in the process.
“Something called an EB-5 permanent resident visa is available to foreign nationals who start businesses here who employ at least 10 people … now, at the moment, most of these EB-5 visas go to Chinese nationals in order to finance real estate projects in our cities — one of the reasons housing costs are so high,” Carlson said.
Carlson continued:
According to congressional investigators, fraud and criminal activity are rampant in the program. Often it’s nothing more than a money-laundering scheme. A few people get rich by selling a path to citizenship for Chinese nationals and their children. In fact, the program is so rotten that last year Democrats and Republicans actually came together to reform it, to make it more restrictive. Consider that, Democrats making it harder for foreigners to get citizenship. But they did because the program is that corrupt. [Emphasis added]
Carlson named Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) as the main proponent of greatly increasing the EB-5 visa program, thus rewarding more Chinese nationals after reports circulated that he was pushing to include the measures in legislation aiding Americans during the coronavirus crisis.
“But Sen. Graham loves it. He’s trying to use the current crisis to roll back reforms to the EB-5 visa program,” Carlson said. “He’d like to increase the number of visas to 75,000 a year. That’s a jump of more than seven times the current number. He’d also like to lower the investment required to just $450,000.”
Fox News’s Tucker Carlson says the “corrupt” EB-5 visa program is selling American citizenship to rich Chinese nationals.
In a segment this week, Carlson called out the EB-5 visa program, whereby wealthy foreign nationals can claim they will invest in the United States at least $900,000 — the previous rate was $500,000 — securing green cards for themselves and their family members in the process.
During Sean Hannity’s show, Graham responded to the reports by denying ever pushing to increase the EB-5 visa program in a coronavirus aid bill. At the same time, Graham praised the EB-5 visa program.
“I haven’t talked to anybody on the planet, much less the Trump administration, about putting EB-5 on the coronavirus bill,” Graham said.
Currently, 10,000 foreign nationals and their families are allowed to enter the U.S. every year on the EB-5 visa. The overwhelming majority of EB-5 visas are rewarded to China’s elite — driving a migration of rich Chinese to cities across the country.
In 2018, the U.S. rewarded nearly 8,000 wealthy foreign investors and their family members with green cards. Between 2014 and 2018, the federal government gave EB-5 visas to about 43,130 wealthy foreign investors and their family members, who can secure American citizenship after five years of living in the U.S.