Feinstein calls for end to controversial EB-5 immigration program

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has called for an end to the controversial EB-5 regional center program that lets foreign nationals get green cards for themselves and their families if they invest at least $500,000 or $1 million in a U.S. business that creates or preserves at least 10 jobs.

“At its most basic, the EB-5 program allows a foreigner to invest $500,000 in a U.S. business, in return receive a visa that puts them and their direct family on a special path toward citizenship,” Feinstein, D-Calif, wrote in an opinion piece in Roll Call Wednesday.

[...] regional centers account for more than 90 percent of visa applications submitted under the program.

“Indirect jobs are those jobs shown to have been created collaterally or as a result of capital invested in a commercial enterprise affiliated with a regional center by an EB-5 investor,” according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which runs the program.

If the hotel employees spend money at Walmart and other local businesses, and they need to hire more people, it could also count them, said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration attorney and professor at Cornell Law School.

In San Francisco, these investors have helped provide financing for redevelopment projects in Hunters Point, Treasure Island and Market Street.

A recent Government Accountability Office report said the immigration service has also had difficulty verifying job creation and determining whether money coming from investors was obtained lawfully in their home countries.



Because the regional center program is a pilot program, Congress must renew it periodically.

[...] it’s not likely to take the place of the regional center program because it requires more active participation by investors and the creation of direct jobs only.