image credit: Insights.dice.com
Sen. Lindsey Graham is using the
coronavirus recovery bills to dramatically expand the award of EB-5 green cards
to wealthy Chinese if they lend money to U.S. real estate investors and other
companies, according to several activists and Politico magazine.
“How can people pushing this not
see how politically explosive this is?” said Mark Krikorian, director of
the Center for Immigration Studies. “An EB-5 increase would almost
exclusively benefit Chinese: It is hard to imagine what they are thinking.”
The plan by Graham, (R-S.C.) was
provided to Politico, which said
it would “boost the number of [EB-5] visas offered to wealthy immigrants who
invest money in the United States as it tries to boost a faltering economy amid
the escalating coronavirus outbreak, according to four people familiar with the
situation.” [Full update is here.]
[resuming from yesterday's blog] This just in from NumbersUSA:
Senators mulling
immigration increases in emergency spending bills.
Tell your Senators to
OPPOSE!
Our Capitol Hill team is learning
of some troubling news. There are a handful of Senators, along with some in the
White House, who are looking to slip an INCREASE of legal immigration into the
emergency spending bills currently being drafted to deal with the coronavirus
outbreak.
The provision being discussed would
increase the number of EB-5 visas from 10,000 to 75,000. The EB-5 visa program
provides foreign nationals with a green card in return for an investment in an
American business that leads to the creation of at least 10 jobs for American
workers. Currently, investors have to invest at least $900,000, but the
provision could reduce that amount to $450,000.
Quite simply, the EB-5 visa program
is the selling of U.S. citizenship. It's ridiculous to think that while
Americans are concerned about their jobs and their health, that some Senators
are looking for ways to benefit foreign nationals instead.
Please call your two U.S. Senators
and urge them to oppose any efforts to slip an EB-5 increase into the economic
stimulus package. Congress should not be burying bad immigration policy into
emergency bills.
The talking point: tell your Senators to oppose an increase
in EB-5 visas in the emergency bills.
Sen. Rob Portman:
202-224-3353 or by email here
Sen. Sherrod Brown: (202) 224-2315 (DC) or (216) 522 7272 (Cleveland)
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