Amid this week’s rush to avoid a government shutdown and make us pay for Donald Trump’s wall, Congress also has to deal with the EB-5 visa investment program, which expires Friday. Even though Trump has profited from EB-5, his ignorance and dog-squirreled attention span mean he probably doesn’t even know that EB-5 is about to expire, let alone have a plan for reforming and renewing the green-cards-for-sale program.
Rep. Kristi Noem is probably too distracted by her gubernatorial campaign and the budget crunch to do anything but cast another blind vote to extend EB-5 without reform. However, one observer anticipates that Congress will raise the minimum investment and USCIS will raise fees.
I have to wonder just how many scandals have to flame up in EB-5 before Trump, Noem, and others in Congress finally notice and take some serious action to fix or shut down the program. In the latest scandal, the feds found that the California father-daughter team of Tat and Victoria Chan defrauded around 100 Chinese investors over nine years, using $50 million in EB-5 funds to buy themselves luxury houses around Los Angeles. As a bonus, three of the Chans’ investors were fugitives wanted by the Chinese government. Wow—those fugitives wouldn’t have gotten past the refugee resettlement program’s vetting process.
Bank settlement and impending EB-5 trial in Vermont, EB-5 felony plea bargain in South Dakota… we have proven waste, fraud, and abuse in American immigration policy, yet a President who won votes by shouting about immigration reform doesn’t notice, and Congress persistently resists reform. Maybe distraction and inaction are the best we can hope for—maybe the distraction of this week’s kamikaze budgeting will lead to inaction on EB-5 and a quiet, overdue expiration of a bad immigration program.
Very good links Cory, just finished them. An interesting week to end on many items for sure. There is so much money to be stolen with this EB5 it is hard to imagine that republicans will not look the other way while their hands are out waiting to be filled. The russians are still in place for the Cypress Banking launder, the players are all still in play. Joop will be tanned and rested, Rounds is in the catbird seat so the only one missing is the murdered guy, sucks to maybe be a whistleblower. Lets see now, Deadwood is taken care of, Aberdeen is kind of okay with the slaughter house (like nothing happened) cheese has soured, so what can be exploited? What is a grifter to do but to keep on under the pretense of jobs jobs jobs, but for who who who?
It’s not Trumps fault he was born with ADHD but it is his fault when he ignores the obvious in favor of anything that helps him personally. As that good South Dakotan Tom Brokaw noted. “Trump has the attention span about this big.” He then put his index finger and thumb only a miniscule distance apart.
Unlike most on blogs, I have no problem getting behind good ideas proposed on the opposite side and don’t assume everything from democrats is a bad idea.
Several years ago (I think it might be almost three years ago as I think it was before Rounds was elected), I praised President Obama’s outline for a reform of the EB-5 program (which came from the Brookings Institution, liberal think tank). After the announcement, President Obama did nada even when Senator Grassley (Committee Chair with jurisdiction) asked for guidance on what was going to be done administratively/via Executive Order so he knew what needed to be done legislatively.
The Obama term ended without anything from the administration. So, I wouldn’t criticize Trump for doing nothing in 100 days when Obama did nothing in 1,000 days.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-temecula-chinese-investment-20170417-story.html
So much money to be stolen, Jerry, and so little oversight. The investors consider $500K their purchase price for easy entry into America. They sign up knowing they may lose all of that money. Rich investors can make that money up pretty quickly. They don’t usually participate materially in the businesses, so they don’t exercise direct oversight over how their money is being used. And if something goes wrong, non-citizen immigrants are less likely to rock the boat than native investors. Plus, you have an economic development program supervised by USCIS—dammit, Jim! I’m a border cop, not an accountant!. EB-5 is seriously flawed.
Troy, I will criticize Obama for doing nothing to tighten up EB-5. I’ve also pointed out top-tier Democrats (Terry McAuliffe, Harry Reid) who appear to have benefited from shady EB-5 action. I’ve criticized SD Democrats for letting the good times roll with EB-5.
Not that one needs to pay any price of admission to criticize Donald Trump for being a s–t-for-brains do-nothing, but if anyone tries to charge a ticket price, I think I’ve paid it. Noem, Rounds, Thune, and Trump need to pay attention and fix EB-5 (where fix includes a range of options, up to and including killing it).